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The Homefront: We didn’t know what we didn’t know in 2019

By D. Louise Brown - | Mar 23, 2021

The people we were in 2019 are different from the people we are in 2021. That’s because 2020 was sandwiched between those two years, and 2020 was a year that changed us.

In 2019, we didn’t know how much of what we were doing was truly vital, and how much of it was unnecessary fluff. In 2020, we were forced to trade excessive for essential, senseless for simple, and needless for necessary.

In 2019, we took personal human interaction for granted. We didn’t realize how much we’d traded away for the convenience of technology. We texted instead of talked and let the “social” in media replace actual contact. But then COVID-19 rolled in. Its sweeping impact settled down on us, driving us into smaller spaces until we stayed away, stayed home, stayed safe. Cornered, we used our “communications” outlets to “talk” to each other. But eventually we realized how unsatisfying those processes were. We discovered that technological chatter isn’t enough. We wanted to actually be with each other — to sit together, watch facial expressions, hold a hand, laugh together, hear each other’s voices. If nothing else, COVID taught us that.

In 2019, we didn’t know we could be teachers to our children. But millions of children were home-schooled in 2020. The whining got pretty loud sometimes — from the parents, not the kids — but all in all, heroic parents shouldered that task and just did it. They sat at the kitchen table, opened up the tablet or computer, looked at the assignments, groaned inwardly and said as cheerfully as they could muster, “Well, that isn’t so bad; we can do this,” and then did it. Medical professionals were heroes in 2020, but home-schooling parents were right behind them. Not just because they did it, but because they did it for so long. The extent to which school kids will recover from their 2020 educational experience depends a great deal on how well their parents met that unimagined, unexpected challenge.

In 2019, we didn’t know fear like we did in 2020. As COVID rolled across the land, bulldozing down people in its path, most of us, at some moment, considered “I might be next.” That realization made us take a keen self-assessment, first of how ready we were to exit this world, and then what we had to do to avoid it. And every sniffle or headache held an element of fear as we tried to recall where we could have been exposed.

In 2019, we didn’t know how quickly store shelves can be emptied until the realization hit us collectively that sheltering in place without basics like food and toilet paper is kind of impossible. We know this now. How we reacted seems to be as diverse as we are.

In 2019, we never remotely considered the idea of wearing a mask to anything (except maybe to rob a bank). By 2021, masses of seamstresses created countless designs and sewed them by the millions. We’re still wearing them, laundering them, replacing them, matching them to our outfits, adjusting them so our glasses don’t fog up, complaining about them and forever praying they’re enough.

In 2019, most of us weren’t involved with gardening and canning. But if the shortage of all things related to these activities is an indication, hordes of us have gone back to our roots. Literally. The same goes for sewing and baking.

In 2019, we took everything for granted. In 2020, we longed for everything we could no longer have or do and survived by promising ourselves that someday we’d get back to normal.

In 2019, we thought we knew what “normal” was. In 2021, we’re not sure we ever will again. We do know we’re still in the learning phase because COVID is still with us. But we also know we can and will get through this.

We learned that in 2020.

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