Anthropology

are about some sort of apocalyptic change. All written before Covid. I'm currently reading Flood by Stephen Baxter. It was published in 2008, and the story starts in 2016 with unrelenting rainfall and ocean rising happening everywhere on the planet, with obvious consequences. There are casual comments about supply chains being disrupted. Sound familiar?

I started changing after 9/11, not because I was freaked out by what happened, but because as a former airline employee (ticket agent at DCA 1969-1979) I knew what bullshit the enhanced security was, and I'm not willing to put up with it. So I drive, or take the train, or the rare times I fly I always purchase a first class ticket, which gives me a bit more comfort.

I was actually on a cruise to Hawaii in March, 2020. Holland America, which has smaller ships than most. During the voyage cleaning was clearly ramped up, and all of us on that ship felt very safe. Got home on March 18 to a very closed down country. Restaurants were closed, and so I wasn't eating out any more. Darn. That has come back, although not as much as prior to Covid.

For me, being older, now 74, it's not as difficult an adjustment as it would be for some one 50 years younger, single, and wanting to go out often. That's certainly what I was like in my 20s.

But here's what I've been saying for some time now: Imagine it's the spring of 1939, you and I (hi there!) are good friends, and we're planning a trip to Europe next year. We can hardly wait! We've been planning and saving for several years now, and will soon be figuring out our itinerary, book the transatlantic trip, reading up on all the places we will visit. It will be wonderful! But then, September 1939 rolls around, and Germany attacks Poland. The Second World War breaks out. Oh, crap! Looks like we won't be going to Europe next year, but we're optimistic, hope it won't last very long, and we'll be able to make that trip in 1941.

Well, as you already know, the war drags on, and on, doesn't end until the middle of 1945. The very soonest you and I might take that long-postponed trip will be 1946, more likely a year or more later. And the Europe we finally see will be nothing like the Europe of 1939. So much will have changed, in ways we could not have imagined at the outset.

And I honestly think it's going to be a lot like this with Covid. Things have already changed a lot, and they are going to continue to change for years.