I started my day with an interview, talking with a lovely dairy farmer in Australia.  Although we mainly conversed about cows—which is a great fun for both of us—we started by comparing notes on how our lives have changed during COVID.  

It turns out that Australia, like the USA, has allowed individual states to make their own rules.  Unlike America’s fifty states, Australia has only six; perhaps there are not quite as many differences.  Still, she expressed some of the same frustrations as I have felt.  When we talk to friends or relatives in other areas of the country, we see stark evidence of how much location has determined how much our lives have been impacted. 

Sometimes I feel like I want to make a scoreboard of sorts.  I want some way to track all the things I’ve given up in an effort to be a good soldier in the fight against the spread. I want credit for the things I no longer do, for the frustrations I feel.  I especially want this when I look around my own household, and I see that some of us have dramatically altered our daily routines—and others continue on with few changes. 

I think it’s a sign of “COVID fatigue” that I have I reached this point.  I usually manage to stop myself before I start complaining—or at least before I list off more than a sentence or two of things that offend, annoy or frustrate me.  Because really:  what good does it do for me to run this mental tally of injustices? 

We’re adjusting, all of us, whether we are in the USA or Australia, in Vermont or Victoria.  Remembering that, and feeling so connected with someone literally half the world away—that’s my silver lining for today.