TFFG: Issue Four

Re-entry will be different for every one of us – and let’s be honest it’s going to be awkward. How do you tell a good friend to step back without it being weird? How do you go back to work and get in an elevator and not freak out if someone coughs? How do you make sure your kid isn’t picking his nose and then touching something and then picking his nose again when you’re not with him 24/7?

And then there’s the bigger question, at least for me: what if I don’t want things to go back to normal? Yes, I’d like to have a professional fix my hacked-up bangs. Yes, I’d like to grab a cocktail with friends instead of talking to them on a screen. Yes, I’m dying to go sit in a restaurant. Yes, I’d like for my son to go back to school so he can be with his friends and teachers…his real teachers. Yes, I’d like to be able to get on a plane and go see my family. Yes to all those things.

But what I don’t want to go back to is the noise of daily life – the nonstop pace and the stress and the FOMO and the constant feeling like we – adults and kids – needed to do more, be more, have more.

Wednesday was Earth Day and I found this live stream video of our planet from space that I couldn’t stop watching. Somehow, even with all the confusion and chaos and craziness happening on the surface, it’s still going ‘round, still holding its place in the universe, still handling the occasional asteroid without missing a rotation. And maybe that’s the takeaway: just keep spinning.