This is 2022 and things are very different from when I was growing up. It sounds stupid to even say that because, of course, things are different. How could they not be? Sometimes when I think back, though, I’m stopped cold by what we used to do and the attitudes we held and never questioned.
When I was a kid the prevailing wisdom was that if you were too sick to go to school you were too sick to do anything fun you wanted to do in the evening. While that might be translated as ‘If you’re sick stay home - period,’ that’s not the way I interpreted it. I dragged my butt to school through colds, flu, and bouts of strep. I remember sitting in a math class with my throat so sore and swollen that when the teacher asked me a question I couldn’t answer it.
I don’t remember my mother even suggesting that I should stay home. I may have forgotten that detail or perhaps she was in the habit of carrying on regardless of how she felt and she saw nothing unusual about it when I did the same thing. Also I might have been a slightly stubborn child and perhaps she figured there was no point arguing with me. So off I went to school sick or healthy. Luckily I wasn’t sick a lot. I wanted to go from grade 1 through grade 12 without any absences. I have no idea why this was important to me. Chickenpox in grade 10 had other ideas when I had to miss some of my final exams.
In all of this there was no concern that I might be transmitting infection to other people. Even when I was teaching I dosed myself up with Tylenol Cold and Flu, armed myself with boxes of kleenex and staggered into work. It was much more effort to plan for a sub than it was to just go in. Besides, I used to joke, I probably got the bugs from the kids in the first place so why not give them back. Most of my colleagues did the same thing.
Covid 19 has given us a collective slap upside the head when it comes to attitudes like these, and that’s a good thing. Deena Hinshaw’s words, ‘Stay home if you’re sick,’ are loud and clear these days. So that’s exactly what we are doing.
Both of us have tested positive for Covid. We know how we contracted it and we wouldn’t necessarily do anything differently if we were to rewind a few days before we became infected. I’m grateful that we have vaccines and that we are both up to date with ours. I’ve been sicker with other viruses and I’m relieved that I now have permission to stay put and do nothing. How soon I’m going to get back out there will likely depend more on how I feel than strictly on a negative Covid test. I’m in no rush and I realize how fortunate I am that I don’t have a job where others are depending on me.
For now, the sparrows careen around in chittering gangs from bush to bush. The dog walkers make their rounds; a flicker putters around at the bottom of the Manitoba maple, and a cup of English breakfast tea, tepid now, sits on the window sill. In a while I will get out of my PJ’s; in a while I will get Odie up and the quiet of the morning will be broken. In a while I will empty the dishwasher. In this moment I am content.
In all of this there was no concern that I might be transmitting infection to other people. Even when I was teaching I dosed myself up with Tylenol Cold and Flu, armed myself with boxes of kleenex and staggered into work. It was much more effort to plan for a sub than it was to just go in. Besides, I used to joke, I probably got the bugs from the kids in the first place so why not give them back. Most of my colleagues did the same thing.
Covid 19 has given us a collective slap upside the head when it comes to attitudes like these, and that’s a good thing. Deena Hinshaw’s words, ‘Stay home if you’re sick,’ are loud and clear these days. So that’s exactly what we are doing.
Both of us have tested positive for Covid. We know how we contracted it and we wouldn’t necessarily do anything differently if we were to rewind a few days before we became infected. I’m grateful that we have vaccines and that we are both up to date with ours. I’ve been sicker with other viruses and I’m relieved that I now have permission to stay put and do nothing. How soon I’m going to get back out there will likely depend more on how I feel than strictly on a negative Covid test. I’m in no rush and I realize how fortunate I am that I don’t have a job where others are depending on me.
For now, the sparrows careen around in chittering gangs from bush to bush. The dog walkers make their rounds; a flicker putters around at the bottom of the Manitoba maple, and a cup of English breakfast tea, tepid now, sits on the window sill. In a while I will get out of my PJ’s; in a while I will get Odie up and the quiet of the morning will be broken. In a while I will empty the dishwasher. In this moment I am content.
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