We Don’t Talk About It. But Can We?

In the early 2020s, we were presented with the COVID-19 pandemic, a multi-year, worldwide medical crisis caused by a new little contagious virus. When the reality of COVID started having palpable impacts on me in Columbus, Ohio, I thought back to the 1918 Influenza epidemic. It wasn’t that long ago, in the grand scheme of things. My dad’s parents probably lived through it. Their parents certainly did, but there weren’t any records of it. At least not in my family. And nothing practical about how they got through it and made ends meet.

I searched elsewhere and heard a few stories about heirloom furniture passed down through families with accompanying stories about how great aunt so and so had died on that very dining room table from the flu cause all the other beds were full to capacity with sick family members. And I saw the pictures in old newspaper articles of folks wearing cloth masks similar to the ones we wore. But I wanted more details. And I’d heard that after the 1918 Flu dissipated, it wasn’t talked about much. People just wanted to get back to normal.

And that’s kind of what we’ve done. We got the shot (or didn’t), shoved our N95s in the junk drawer (or didn’t), and tried to jump back in to the lives we’d put on pause. Or try to function given new limitations caused by the infection.

It can feel easier to not talk about it.

But, like…how often does trying to stuff down and suppress emotions even work on a small scale? I have a husband and a 9 year-old kid. They both have many wonderful traits. But my husband can’t close a cabinet door to save his life and my kid never manages to remember to screw the toothpaste cap back on after she brushes her teeth. How many times have I smiled and nudged the doors closed and found the cap that one of the cats had batted under the toilet and replaced it only to find myself days later ranting and losing my shit at them? The pressure of small unspoken resentments spilling out.

Think of almost eight billion people suppressing how they felt about muddling through a world-wide pandemic.

Can we talk about it?