It is easy at this stage in the pandemic to be a little punchy.
A little resentful.
A little like a toddler who missed her nap.
This freaking COVID-19 thing has gone on far too long and is too hard.
We have lost so much, and it hurts.
We are tired of being scared and careful and — we are just so tired.
But, let’s pause to think about what is working and what we are managing, shall we?
Last week, the student Indigenous leadership groups in the corridor, their teachers, and supporters pulled together a Zoom 24-Hour Drum to honour their culture, their challenges, and to shine a light on the way forward.
The event included folks from Pemberton down through Whistler and Squamish.
Thanks to it being an online event, this year, for the first time, there were Indigenous groups from other communities too.
That is no small feat.
麻豆社国产kids, in general, are putting on masks, keeping their distance the best they can, and still managing to learn and do their assignments with burdens and worries their parents could not have imagined.
Kudos to them.
And in one way or another, all of us are achieving small victories in this incredibly challenging time.
We are showing up for work or making a life without the job we used to depend on.
We are dealing with clients or customers who often cannot be their best selves right now.
We are getting our kids to school and maintaining our own and their connections the best we can.
Some of us are still volunteering where we can.
We spend a lot of time talking and writing about how this pandemic has caused fissures in our community — and it has — and how it has added the weight of mental health problems for many and actual pounds to a lot of us — and it has.
But we should also stop to notice that we are doing it.
You are doing it.
However that looks for you: if you are reading this now, you have a 100% track record of getting through a global pandemic.
Good for you. Good for us.
Well done.
Are we handling everything perfectly?
Heck no. But what is perfect in the context of surviving a virus that upends our lives?
There is no manual for this time we are living through. We are all getting by and waiting for brighter days that will surely come.
And in the meantime, how about we frame things like this: there’s a saying in journalism circles where deadlines rule that applies to surviving this pandemic — “Done is better than perfect.”
Tell yourself that next time you are bemoaning imperfection in yourself, in others, or our community.
“Done is better than perfect.”
