2021 Life Logs, Day 73: Too Slow, Too Fast
Date: Sunday, March 14, 2021
Weather: Partly Sunny and Windy; High 47, Low, 17 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I did it. I completed my book chapter on the 5+ weeks Windbird spent in the Galapagos Islands.
And I completed my food jigsaw puzzle—artichokes, peach halves, kiwi, arugula, spinach, and pink Peruvian lilies (Alstroemeria, only the roots are edible once cooked). The puzzle has been on my dining table for two months, so it was definitely time to finish it. It is beautiful, but I am ready to move on to a new puzzle. On both projects, Chapter 10 of my book and the puzzle, I was moving a snail’s pace. Maybe the writing will go faster on the passage to the Marquesas Islands. We were in the Galapagos for 38 days, but the passage took only 21 days and we saw almost nothing along the way. There will be the story about running over a sleeping female sperm whale, but otherwise, I remember it as a calm passage without much drama. When I go back and read the logs from that time, I might find out differently.
So, I have been moving too slow, and I think Governor Charlie Baker is moving too fast. Heather stopped by late this afternoon to deliver some packages of mine that were delivered to her house and she told me that as of the 28th of April, Jonah and Sam, and all Falmouth students, will be returning to school full-time. I wanted to call Governor Baker and sing the old Simon and Garfunkel song “Feelin’ Groovy” to him. If you remember, the song begins with the words, “Slow down, you move too fast.” Since September, pre-school through fourth graders have been in school full-time, but all other grades have only been in school four days a week, every other week. The rest of the time, they are remote. It has not been perfect, but the virus transmission rate has been very low. Now, in just six weeks, all students will be back in school full time. Teachers, who have just been elevated to essential worker status, might not all be vaccinated. I can’t imagine this is going to go well. If I ran the world, I would have added one grade at a time or just left things as they are until next fall. I remember last spring when all of us were very unhappy with remote learning. It has its good and its bad. But under the current system in Falmouth, coronavirus cases have been kept in control. When Sam and Jonah heard the news that they would be going back full-time they didn’t understand why they couldn’t do part of their schooling remotely. Many adults are having the same reaction to going back to work in their offices full-time. It is going to be very interesting to see how we handle this transition as a nation. And about going more slowly, I heard Dr. Anthony Fauci say today, “You don’t spike the football on the 5-yard line. You wait until you are in the end zone.” Great advice.
