Covid, Variants, and a Snow Storm?

Tonight in New Jersey, there is nearly two feet of snow outside my frosted windows. It’s pretty. But Merlin, our ten month-old Westie, finds all the fluffy white stuff frustrating.

Truthfully, I found it a little frustrating too. Since we are having remote instruction right now, we were informed that today would not be a snow day. I watched the snow whirl and listened to the wind howl against our windows throughout the day as my students dutifully showed up to class, looking out their own windows. Today’s kids have lost a lot of their childhood during the past eleven months.

Snow days are a fundamental experience for kids in school. There are many things a student can do to invite a snow day: wear the pajamas inside out or flush ice cubes down the toilet are just two of the well-known superstitions. Just the excitement of hearing snow can be enough to make a kid smile. Those of you my age probably have fond memories of those days. So why are adults opposed to giving the kids a day off from school? Kids have lost a lot during the pandemic. Give them a snow day and watch them smile.

And smiles are so important these days. With news of Covid variants and the struggle to get vaccines, being happy might be a good defense against getting sick in the first place. But how do you stay happy when you have been looking out the same windows for nearly a year? How do you make yourself smile when every trip to a story requires a mask or two?

Maybe we should think like a kid. Play some video games. Take a moment to call a friend. Play ping pong on a dining room table. Watch modern versions of favorite childhood cartoons. Go outside to do more than just shovel snow. Take a leap into the piles of fluffy white snow and spread your arms like an angel.

The wind has begun to howl again outside my window. Despite shoveling four times today, the paths we made are covered in white again. Tomorrow we will have to go out again. We still have a car to clear out. And we still have to deal with Covid. Pandemic fatigue is real.

But I promised myself, and my son, that I would take the time to build a snowman, or maybe have a snowball fight. I promised myself to take some time and enjoy slowing down.

At least for tomorrow I will think about snow, and not so much about Covid and its variants.