Week 25
Struggling back into the saddle
Hello friends,
Please be careful out there. My bout with COVID was miserable, and lasted two very long weeks that I really wish I hadn’t missed. I’ve finally tested negative and recovered just in time to make it to Salt Lake City, where I’ll be leading a workshop tomorrow.
It’s been painful to be offline so much, but it helped me think about how I want to direct my attention as I return. The topics that are in the front of my mind are much the same as they were before I got sick, only terribly accelerated:
unimaginable funding increases for concentration camps and deadly raids;
devasting flooding, disastrous wildfires, and the looming threat that even as climate change intensifies storm impacts, we’ll lose what predictive power we already have;
today’s Supreme Court decision allowing the Department of Education to resume firing its staff; and
the challenge of understanding what the recissions package and appropriations mean for science, education, and public media.
I’d love to tell you that this time away has given me new clarity or that I’m back with renewed vigor. I’m back, that’s true, and I’m grateful for that. But I’m weaker and sadder, and terribly behind on obligations to people I care about. Even so, I can’t stop thinking about how lucky I am though: I don’t seem to have lingering symptoms. I wasn’t hospitalized or dangerously ill; sick as I was, I didn’t even lose my sense of smell. My husband took care of me (and everything else) with a tenderness that makes me tearful. Crucially, we could afford the time off, which so many people cannot.
This isn’t how I planned my summer, but then again, this isn’t how I planned these next however many years of my life either. But I’m going to take this weaker, sadder self and go do the absolute best I can tomorrow and the day after. I’ll report back on Friday.
Be smart. Mask up. Take care of yourselves until then.
Liz