| It’s now about a year since our world started to come apart. There’s no point in describing the problems of isolation that I, like everyone else, have suffered in the last year, or to make lists of things we haven’t been able to do because of COVID. That would be sad, and even worse, it would be boring. But some good things did happen last year, partly despite the situation, and partly because of the situation. First of all, it’s important to say that for an introvert like me, who enjoys hours of solitude, the isolation is not so difficult, especially because I spend the beginning and end of the day with Avi, so that I'm not really alone. And also without trips to my favorite countries every couple of months, there was more time to get things done. For example, after twenty years of theoretically weekly, but really rather sporadic, study sessions, Howie and I finished the tractate of the Talmud that we had been studying. We covered a lot of ground in just a few months of much more regular and concentrated meetings. My language study is also more intense. I finished reading my first novel in Sinhala, a year and a half after I started it, and I’m already well into a second one. Thanks to the push of my co-author Steve Fassberg who did the great majority of the work, we published a talk that we gave at a conference two years ago. Much less significant, but still worthwhile, with the advice of a friend and former co-worker, I gradually improved this blog, which now looks pretty nice. In my opinion, at least. On another front, since I’m spending many more hours in my house, I wanted to improve the atmosphere, and so I made a lot of small changes which, all taken together, make a considerable improvement. I have a new light fixture in the dining room, and in the living room there’s a large antique map of South India and Ceylon and two new end tables. Since I can’t invite other friends to my house, I have prepared a few Friday night meals for Avi and her family, and they turned out very well. It's a nice change for them to get out of their house a little and eat food that they didn’t have to cook themselves. I have learned to make some good recipes from Kerala and Sri Lanka and cooking them gives me a bit of a feeling that I am there. Although I couldn't make the usual major trips, I did make three excursions in the last six months: the summer weekend with the whole family in Pennsylvania, a few days in Macomb with Avi, and a day of camping in a Wisconsin state park followed by a visit with Reva. The first of these was, as always, the high point of the year, and the second and third were delightful getaways. And though I missed the usual big Thanksgiving gathering at Louis’s house, this year Reva and her kids came to me for the holiday, and we had a wonderful time together. The hardest part of the year has been not being able to make frequent visits to Philadelphia and DC to spend time with Deena, Tamar, Renana, and my grandchildren. But lots of Zoom conversations did mitigate that a little, and let me still feel close to them. The Zoom seder on the second night of Passover, was surprisingly good, though nothing like having everyone here with me. Before infection rates around here got bad enough that they discontinued it, I did some volunteering at the Ark food bank, which was rewarding and worthwhile. And things have improved again to the point that I will be able to start the volunteering again soon. So while last year was a serious tragedy for very many people, for me the darkness was broken by many bright points. |
| Created on 24 January 2021, updated on 24 January 2021 by Samuel Ethan Fox |