It could be so much better…

 Life is good…

but it could be a whole lot better. 

Don’t get me wrong. I am so thankful to be alive and to be healthy. Alive and healthy is probably as good as it gets. I am in the second month of a sixty-day fitness challenge. I’m feeling stronger and a little more co-ordinated. I am enjoying tap dance.  I love using my body as a human rhythm instrument. It’s cool. In a few months, my adult beginner class and a few others will learn a routine well enough to perform at a recital. And that’s fun. The rest of the world disappears when I’m on stage. That dance becomes my whole world, and that’s a whole lot of happiness. It only lasts about two and a half minutes, however. Sometimes, happiness is fleeting. Or maybe, most of the time. Maybe that makes the moments of true happiness feel even more special.

Life is good…

but it could be a whole lot better. I am alive and I have outlets to express myself. My visual journal is filling with stories and poems and drawings and even some collage. I have rocks and bottles to paint. I have a scrapbook of newspaper articles to put together. For the most part, I keep busy and I am happy.

Life is good…

but it could be a whole lot better. I spend a lot of time by myself, in my little apartment. The existence of the internet makes that bearable. I have the opportunity to read plays with a group of people who are in various places (mostly Chicago). What could be more fun than that? I get to overact with great glee. Reading a different play each week is super fun. It brings literature to life. There can be happiness during a pandemic.

Life is good…

but it could be a whole lot better. Today, I was doing a bit of food shopping. A man who was just ahead of me at the cash register suddenly became unmasked. The elastic on his mask had broken. The mask was dead. The cashier offered him another mask but he turned it down. “I have plenty in the car. I’m okay. I’ve already been sick. It wasn’t so bad. Just a lot of exhaustion.”

“Not everyone was that lucky,” I commented. He shrugged his shoulders. Fortunately, for me, I was socially distanced. After Mr. Broken Mask left, the cashier expressed his concern about the situation that he had just experienced. He had been a lot closer to that man than I was. It was troublesome for the cashier. I wondered how often that cashier was exposed to people who just didn’t seem to care that the global pandemic called COVID-19 has not ended.

As of less than hour ago, as Google updates COVID-19 statistics hourly, there have been 111 million cases worldwide. Of those, 62.6 million people have recovered, while 2.46 million passed away. In the United States, which leads in the numbers of COVID-19 cases (28.1 million) and deaths (499,280), the numbers are slowly coming down. Hospitals are not quite as overwhelmed as they were a year ago. I hear that things are getting better. I hope so, but, oh, we’ve experienced so much loss. Our hearts are broken for the families who have lost loved ones. We need to make sure that all of those numbers are connected to names. People are more than just numbers.

Life is good…

but it could be so much better. COVID-19 restrictions are temporary. It’s not forever. They are not an infringement on our freedom. Wearing a mask is all about keeping other people safe. Wearing two masks is better. When I socially distance from other people, I am not giving the message that I don’t like them. I am showing concern for their safety. 

Life is good…

but it could be so much better. Please wear your mask correctly. Preferably wear two masks. Make sure that they fit your face. Feel free to turn your mask into a fashion statement. And please, stay socially distanced. You can do this. We can do this. Life is good and we can make it better by supporting and encouraging one another. We’re all in this together. Remember the words of the Three Musketeers: “All for one, and one for all.”