We are all warriors

There is so much in the air, I fear we are all unwell and yet oddly looking at this time through new eyes many of us have a newfound gratitude for our health. My 83-yr-old mother has counted herself  lucky to have avoided Covid for the last two years but tested positive last week after she coughed her way through the Super Bowl. I got a cold around the same time and really hoped it was just a cold but tested positive on Friday. This is my second go round and the vaccination and booster made a big difference in how I feel. My symptoms are more manageable this time. Last time I felt like I would never recover. I didn’t have to be hospitalized although I did end up in the emergency room with pneumonia months after recovering. This pandemic is complicated, confusing, and frustrating and we may never have all the answers. People around me have never had it, never even had reason to take a test and others fall deathly ill. 

My children are warriors for making it through their various situations. Kaylee braved the streets of Brooklyn every day, working from home luckily but still trekking out to breathe and live in the city. Tristan worked through the entire pandemic as many have because his job is not something you can do from home. And Japhy braved her first year of school, both virtually and in-person, and and it has made her rethink everything about why she is going to school. We are all warriors, whether we've experienced symptoms or not, as we wind our way through this new reality. 

In the midst of this pandemic we have people who feel the need to question books being read by children. As if we don’t already have enough to worry about right now. Russia’s possible invasion of Ukraine seems like something of great importance. But instead some are setting their sights on schools; how we are educating students to be world citizens, and libraries and books that might be too honest about world history or show a naked body.  Art Spiegelman’s 1986 comic book biography, Maus, was recently banned by a Tennessee school district.  After I read the article I checked our district online catalog, found a copy, and read it. It was a very-thought provoking read and a good way for older students to understand a Holocaust survivors story. And check out David Corn's article in Mother Jones. Please go out an buy a copy or two. 

Why does real history scare people? Why does reading about human relationships scare people? We didn’t conjure up the pandemic by reading a book but somehow reading a book about a gay character might make a teen choose that life style?  This logic makes me question everything as well. How will we move past this puritanical state we are in?  It could take a flood.