Play Ball!

As we slowly emerge from sheltering at home, a world greets us that is both the same and different.

        We are the same and yet different. 

        We began our sheltering as we said good-bye to the last vestiges of winter and facing a cold reality that we knew not what we were dealing with.  A verdant spring is now upon us, and while there is a threat of rain, there is also a growing understanding that the pandemic has infected us with greater patience and stronger resolve.  Consideration for others blooms yet again.

        Throughout our sheltering we have witnessed the fragility of life, selfless acts of courage and the pain inflicted by a crippled economy.  There is much we have missed-out on during our isolation- what we once took for granted no longer will be when their time comes round again.  Yes, we are the same, yet different.      

        The world we see today doesn’t have to be unrecognizable from the world we knew before Covid-19.  Perhaps it can be like meeting a friend we haven’t seen for awhile; we see that they’ve changed, but not so much that we don’t recognize the person we fondly remember.

        When will our pre Covid-19 world come back to us as something more than just a memory?  Well, here’s a thought: Why not at the start of a new season?  I hear it’s a possibility.  Opening Day, is what we call it- when we tune in Ryan and Rex and settle in to watch our national pastime, hoping against hope that this is the year we win it all.  Opening Day- when the national anthem is sung and the umpire yells “Play ball!” and we hear that first, delicious crack of a bat meeting ball.