Considering Freedom

April 4, 2020
Tombstone, Arizona

And I thought having a winter home base was weird!

This new reality is beyond strange. For so many reasons.

We have a lot of saved TV programs and watching pre-Corona commercials highlights just how different our world is now. Car and furniture advertisements - we used to be able to stroll through all the choices and buy them! Drug commercials - are people able to get their prescriptions mailed, or is it safe to visit a physician to get new ones? Fortunately we personally are able to do the former, and hopefully the latter won't be necessary for a long time. Restaurants, new movies in theatres, concert tours, and sporting events - we certainly spent (or had the opportunity to spend) a lot of time in crowds of others. It's a wonder this pandemic didn't happen sooner. And of course all those online dating sites - people still have the online access, but that "getting to know you from afar" stage is going to be much longer now!!

In our post-Corona world commercials are much more limited. And sensitive to our new reality. No bears singing about how their "hinies clean" since we can't find toilet paper! Of any brand!

We're enjoying our sunsets and wide open spaces, continuing to be grateful for where we've so recently landed. Having Ezra and his parents here is an added blessing, time we've been given that would not have happened otherwise. 

A rare red sky over Sheepshead in the Dragoon Mountains.

Sure glad we got a big recliner!

Building with Daddy.

The big bubble wrap is always more fun than whatever was in the box.

Asking the ants where they're going.

Enjoying quiet cuddle time.

Making mud prints is good clean fun! All gone the next day.

TV watching buddies.

One warm evening sans wind, PopPop builds us a fire to enjoy in the setting sun. Dinosaur beans for dinner and marshmallows for dessert make for a perfect outdoor evening.

Ezra prefers his own plank chair by the fire.

Soon it's his outdoor bed. Less appealing when the sun went down :-)

People have already started asking "What's the first thing you want to do when this is over?" You know who is asked that question?  Prisoners. 

Which brings home the reality of what all of us have temporarily lost. Our freedom. We're staying safe and are able to get food and basic supplies. Many are still fully employed, and either staying at home or performing essential services. We can still do a lot.

But we can't do everything we want to. Can't go anywhere we want - can't go most public places. Can't see our friends. Can't see our family. Can't buy everything we want even though we might have the money. We just can't.

In some large cities, in counties and states, people are fined or arrested for violating sheltering in place rules. Some European countries require permits for leaving home, and those are only given for specific reasons. 

And we have no release date. Freedom will return in the future, but we don't know when. Unsettling at the very least.

If you've visited the Japanese Internment Camp, Manzanar, in the Eastern Sierras of California you may have thought - wow, "they" didn't have it so bad. Food, shelter (inadequate, but shelter), education, entertainment, security, gardens, weddings and births, stores, even a newspaper.  Beautiful, natural surroundings.

But they didn't have their freedom. And they didn't know how long it would be before they did. It mattered a lot.

Our situation isn't as extreme and everything we own wasn't taken from us, but it does raise the issue of how completely unreal this is for all of us who have never experienced a lack of freedom (since we moved out of our parents' home). And how much it matters.

On top of the fear of the actual virus for those most at risk, and the hit on individual finances, this impact on our freedom takes its toll. Some are resentful, some look for answers to the "when" question to lessen their stress, and still others are rebellious to the detriment of everyone's health.

I don't imagine I'm the only one considering what freedom really means, along with all the things most important to us. I'm confident we'll get through this and regain all we enjoyed "before". We'll be grateful for our simple freedoms.