12/31/2021
By Kate Stone Lombardi
I’m writing this on New Year’s Eve, facing big decisions on our celebratory plans tonight. Should we eat in the kitchen or the dining room? Not change into pajamas until after dinner? Maybe wear our nicest pajamas? Stay up until 9:30 pm instead of 9:00?
I’m not trying to sound dreary – I’ve never been a big fan of New Year’s Eve, so the Omicron resurgence has given me an excuse to spend the evening as I secretly want to every year.
Call me crazy, but I’m feeling hopeful. It was a tumultuous year, but 2021 was a definite improvement on 2020.
For starters, last year at this time, there was no vaccine for Covid, and extremely limited treatment. Makeshift morgues and refrigerator trucks were on the streets. As someone I know used to intone, “We’re all potentially 14 days away from death.” We knew very little about the virus – remember washing our groceries? Just as important, we couldn’t be with the people we loved. The isolation was awful.
The recent spike in cases is lousy, but think where we’ve come from. At least now, if you get infected and you’ve been vaccinated, you will likely not end up on a ventilator fighting for your life. Yeah, break through cases are increasingly common and at-home tests are impossible to get, but remember when you couldn’t even get masks? Everything was fraught with trauma.
So I’m choosing to be grateful and hopeful as we head into the New Year. Treatments are available. Pills are in the offing. More booster shots will be developed.
Getting to celebrate New Year’s Even in pajamas is just icing on the cake.