Today marks a month- 30 days- since we went into self-isolation. It's a strange thing, and yet the days have become calmer. I can attribute this to my not having looked at the news in over a week. I'm aware there are terrible things happening in the world. The global pandemic has affected most facets of life at this point, and I'm forgiving myself for trying to avoid the harsh light the media keeps throwing on these. I'm well aware people are dying, and struggling, and have been torn from their families. And I'm too scared of this to allow myself to focus on it.
Today, we glimpsed kindness courtesy of our town's fire department. Let me start by saying these people simply showing up at work right now is incredible. One of my closest friends has a husband who was self-quarantined for days in their bedroom while she watched their two boys because a firefighter on his shift tested positive. Thank goodness, her husband's results (which took almost a week to come in) were negative, and he's back in the firehouse tomorrow.
But today, our town's department not only showed up at work, prepped and ready to deal with medical and fire emergencies, but also shuttled the Easter Bunny around on a truck, weaving through the streets, honking the horn and waving to children who stood in their yards, and on their porch steps, waving.
We didn't see him. We heard the siren, but the caravan didn't come down our street. The kids were a little disappointed, but we looked at photos and videos online of the kids who did see him, and E. said "mommy, look how happy they all are! I'm going to make an Easter sign in our driveway." And she did, with giant blush pink bubble letters proclaiming "Happy Easter!" and a bunny cartoon for good measure. The people across the street had a human-sized Easter Bunny decoration near the sidewalk, and I think between that and E.'s addition, anyone who walked or drove by got a good dose of holiday cheer.
When the weather became too cool to stay outside, we decided we needed a movie night, but Trolls World Tour was wayyyy more expensive than we thought it would be ($20 for a 48 hour RENTAL- I completely understand they need to make their money back without a theatrical release, but I'll wait until I can get it for much less as a rental- in a few weeks- alas, $20 is more than we have in disposable income right now).Instead, we found Cool Runnings on Disney Plus (side note: Disney Plus, which we gave the girls for Christmas, has literally been the gift that keeps giving during this quarantine. Between their sitcoms and films that make my children happy, I love them right now. If they could figure out a way to make a Baby Yoda cartoon during social distancing, they would rocket above Santa on list of things that make children happy).
Cool Runnings is a classic underdog sports story, and of course, had the moments of trials and tribulations (with musical score to match) leading to joy. There is nothing to raise your spirits like John Candy in peak-comedic form guiding a group of likable men with Jamaican accents towards qualifying for the Olympics. I think the thing I enjoyed most was actually that (spoiler alert- though this film is now 27 years old) they didn't win. That would have been relatively improbable. But at the same time, they set out to prove they belonged, to get to the Olympics, and to find their best selves.
At a time when the Olympics are delayed by a year, which will likely cost a large number of people who have spent their lives training for those events a shot at them, it was a reminder that qualifying for the Olympics is a rare and elusive feat. I remember that about 20 years ago, a friend of mine from soccer ended up playing in the Olympics. Not on the US Women's Team (which won gold that year), but for the Greek National Team. Athens was hosting, and her parents and grandparents were Greek citizens- as a result, her lineage could allow her to claim citizenship. I remember reading that she'd seen an advertisement that the Greek Women's Team was looking for players with Greek heritage, and she reached out to the coach. She then paid her own way, flew there to try out, and made the team. She was one of the best players I had ever shared a field with, and I remember thinking, even as her team lost 3-0 to the US in their opening match, I am so proud of her. It wasn't about bringing home the gold- it was simply about getting there by being the best version of herself she could be.
In these trying times, being kind, and being the best versions of ourselves are the goals we should be setting. It's not necessarily the Olympics, but it's equally as important, because both of these things can bring joy to the world. Right now, we need that.
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