The Newest Normal

 No more cups of coffee. Even the last remaining coffee shop and counter has closed. That place with the sandwich board doesn't just lock up and do delivery only, they've closed entirely to allow the staff to quarantine. I went to the grocery store on Sunday morning at my usual time and there is a special route you have to enter through now instead of straight through the automatic doors, it keeps people 6' apart and they hand you a freshly-sanitized cart. Some places are limiting the number of people allowed in at a time and how many of certain items you can purchase. All around are people wearing masks, homemade and store bought. Vinyl gloves are much in evidence as well. The TP aisle is empty, you have to ask if you want a package, but I should be good for a while yet. I begin to wonder if I should make a mask for myself while I'm producing them for my friends and family and sending them off.

Meanwhile campus is eerily quiet and almost empty. It looks like summer came early. I still go in, it's easier to focus there. Some students have dropped off the map, and I hardly blame them, because learning about how to paint yourself in animal makeup seems pretty frivolous right now. Some universities are starting layoffs and furloughs already, and of course the worst is predicted to still be ahead. Committee meetings still happen over Zoom and e-mail, and my therapist called to say that she can do a sort of skype session, not that it's wanted. She's not particularly helpful even in person. My garden is doing more for my mental health than she ever has.

For all that I do care about my students though, and despite how much I believe in academia to breed great things, it all seems so pointless at the moment. I'm impressed by my high-achieving colleagues and I want good things for them, but instead of a video meeting to hand out awards and talk about whether we should include student evals or not, how about we dedicate that time to setting up a University need board where people can post about what they can do or what they need done? If I took the time I spent posting assignments and rubrics and lectures for class and put it towards making more masks, how many more could I get done? I can't be the only one right now who looks around and thinks how little the minutia of our former lives matters now. Why try to keep up with normal when what is normal has changed?