This time last year, things were scary: shut downs and quarantines, the uncertainty of what we were dealing with, what it all meant, and how long it would last. Those are not fun memories. But the fact that in less than twelve months, not one but three highly efficacious vaccines have become available in the U.S. is frankly astounding.
While there was the whole thing last year about what to do during quarantine (and whether you in fact did learn how to juggle and crack combination locks, not that those were my goals, no sir), some folks did start or increase frequency of routine journaling. I have kept a journal off and on since 2008 but during the first few months of lock down last spring, I made entries almost daily. Lately, some writers have gone back to review their journals from last year and I thought I'd take a look at mine, too. This gave me an odd feeling, as I almost never look back at old journal entries.
Here's mine from Sunday, March 15, 2020:
"What a strange and tenuous time we are living in . . . " Yeah, I'll say. I cut out a lot of political cartoons from the local newspaper, the Frederick News Post (FNP) and pasted them in the journal. Many last year captured what I was thinking/feeling in a very concise way, better than what I could describe in words myself. Same for cartoons made during the 2020 presidential election. My journal entries during that time often became more collages than linear, written narratives. It was soothing to cut and paste and fill blank white space with color and shapes.
Now that vaccines are rolling out and there is real hope that things will start to get back to normal at some point this calendar year, I can look back at last year with a clearer eye and put things in perspective. It's all so interesting, isn't it?
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