With post-pandemic life on the way, what happens to my COVID-19 hobbies? | Opinion
Post-pandemic, do things just go back to the way they were before?
Standing over my sourdough starter this morning, trying to decide if I should feed him breakfast or wait and give him lunch, I wondered: Is Joey (nee “Joey McSourdough-y”) a forever part of my life now? Or is he just a COVID-19 hobby, ready to be discarded at the first sign of reopening?
The United States is administering more than two million COVID vaccines each day, and the president just announced that every adult should be eligible for their shot by May 1. If we can keep those pesky virus variants at bay (a big if), we’re looking at backyard barbecues on July 4, and herd immunity by the fall.
That gives us just a few months to pull ourselves out of our pandemic routines and figure out what life is like after all this.
I’m imagining a day in, say, mid-October 2021. The leaves are a Culture Club rainbow of red, gold, and green, and there’s a bit of a chill in the air. School is well underway, the kids are planning out their Halloween costumes. It’s still warm enough to sip a coffee at an outdoor cafe table, but — if we’d be more comfortable inside — we can go ahead and sit inside. We wear our masks on the bus. We carry the losses and grief of the worst of COVID-19 in our hearts.
Maybe I’m off by a month or two, maybe the return to normalcy is a little faster or a little slower. Maybe it comes in fits and starts -- two steps forward, one step back. But for the most part, post-pandemic life is coming into focus.
And I have so many questions.
Joey, as any well-tended sourdough starter should be, is top of mind. I never thought I’d attempt sourdough in my life (who has that kind of time?), and yet here I am, a year into social isolation, a bread-maker with a baker’s skills and instincts: I don’t even look at a recipe anymore. I just know how the dough should look, smell, and feel. Will I still have the time for bread-making in the fall? Will I still make the time for daily feedings, 12-hour rises, and every-30-minute stretch-and-folds, even after I and my community are vaccinated?
What about the second dog I’ve been searching for on rescue websites? I’ve become convinced over the last year that our precious Daisy, the greatest mutt in the world, needs a little sister. I scour Petfinder daily, submitting applications as soon as I see new adoptee listings pop up. Come fall, will a second dog still seem like a good idea? Will that urge to fill the house up with more life, activity, and affection fade away? When we begin venturing out more, will it seem foolish to have added yet another dependent to the household?
Post-pandemic, do things just go back to the way they were before? Do we rewind the clock to late 2019/early 2020 and carry on as if nothing has happened? Do we all walk back into our offices, our classrooms, our friends’ homes, and just pick up from where we left off? “Well, that was crazy! Anyway, come here and give me a hug.”
Will we hug?
I miss hugging. I miss being around people — even strangers! I miss going to shows, eating in restaurants and drinking in bars, flying places for work and vacation. I miss being sociable and busy, putting on makeup, taking too long to pick out my outfit. I miss dresses and high-heeled shoes. I miss in-person encounters, reading the room, exchanging looks, body language.
Sometimes it feels as if this last year has been nothing more than a prolonged, depressing rut that we need to claw out of and leave behind for good. But you can never leave things completely behind — and there is no question the gruesome toll of the pandemic and the many months of physical distancing will stay with us in myriad ways.
COVID-19 has changed us. Collectively, we have faced fears, made impossible compromises, given up so many things we didn’t want to give up. We have made sacrifices for one another. And we have been extraordinarily resourceful and resilient through it all. The situation has been depressing. But we have been amazing.
Joey has been pretty great too. It takes repetitive effort to keep him alive, but the loaves he produces are sublime. I think that kind of nourishment should have a place in my life even after the world opens up again. I will be busy and on the go — just like old, pre-pandemic me. But new, post-pandemic me knows the quiet vitality of a comforting routine.
Elizabeth Planet lives in West Philly with her beloved Joey and Daisy (plus her husband and three sons). @elizabethplanet