Thoughts on a Pandemic Holiday

 

 

What will I miss about this year’s non-holidays?

I don’t know. 

The past several years, my holiday observance has mostly consisted of decorating the crap out of the house (for my own enjoyment only, since we have no friends and I don’t entertain); buying a few presents for family (who don’t really need or want anything); attending holiday concerts or plays or some other entertainment (though these have become more rare, as time has gone by and tickets to such things have become prohibitively expensive.) 

At least the decorating has gone on anyway.  It’s not like I have to go out and GET decorations.  And I will say, decorating for the holidays has been the first time since March that I have actually felt NORMAL.  It’s the one thing the pandemic hasn’t tarnished, spoiled, or taken away.

Gift shopping has become more of a chore than a joy, so I won’t miss that.

 Concerts and such are so expensive, and the ones we can afford kind of…suck.  So I can take a pass on those this year without too much remorse.

Still, the holidays are a bit…flat.  We passed on Thanksgiving entirely—cooked up hamburgers and fries for the holiday feast for the two of us.  And we won’t be gathering with the family for Christmas, either.  We text, we Zoom; but I’m not comfortable with spending many hours in close quarters indoors with…well, anybody.  So that’s not going to happen.

But I got to thinking the other day:  There is one thing…a thing that actually disappeared more than a decade ago…that I will particularly miss this holiday season.   Because a pandemicly challenged Christmas would have been the perfect time for it.

And that is…

AOL j-land.

 

I remember those days, particularly the holidays of 2004 and 2005, when Journal-land was in its heyday.  We had such a lovely community, and we had a mostly good time getting to know each other and sharing traditions, pictures, games, stories, memories, and sometimes gifts, with people all over the country or even across the world.

I remember being so stoked about instant messaging with a journal friend who lived in the UK on New Years’ Eve 2004.  It seemed like such a miracle of technology…the very best this newfangled “internet” had to offer.

Social media in its infancy.

What a glorious couple of years!

And then social media grew up.  And became…well, we all know what it became.  Hardly bears thinking about, how quickly the human race turned what seemed such a bright and hopeful gift into a shithole.

I had to wade out of the Facebook cesspool over a year ago, mostly leaving behind the few friends I had left from the original AOL J-land.  I keep banging away here on Coming to Terms, but the old friends don’t come around much.  Or if they do, they choose to leave no trace…  And to add insult to injury, recent shifts in the blog continuum have erased the names from the comments on posts transferred here from AOL and rendered them all “anonymous,” so when I go back to visit the old neighborhood, it’s peopled with nameless ghosts.

But…yeah.  I thought about AOL J-Land the other day, and how its comfort and wonder and innocence would have been perfect during what promises to be a strangely detached and lonely holiday season.  Those connections were a treasure and a lifeline 15 years ago.  What a nurturing miracle they would be now!

Anyway…

Happy Holidays to any of my old Journal-land friends who may stop by.

Stay safe, stay healthy.  Get the shot when it gets around to you.

I miss you.