Helllooo my begonias! A lot of people ask me “Hey Mo! Are you going to keep posting regularly when the pandemic is over?” They also ask me “What time do you get up in the morning?” And “where did you get that bag?” The answers are probably, 4:00 AM, and Istanbul. It’s adorable, isn’t it?

 

ALL DRESSED UP AND NO PLACE TO GO

 

But I digress: the problem with Covid 19, apart from EVERYTHING, is that there is no clear end point. The pandemic will not just stop one day, like an earthquake, or a war. It will wax and wane for quite some time, and no one can say with any certainty how – or even if – it will disappear entirely. Best case scenario is that we get a vaccine, which could eradicate the virus like it did smallpox and polio, or we achieve herd immunity (which makes me think of buffalo), and Covid 19 diminishes until it turns into just another flu strain. Either way, it’s going to take time, probably way longer than anyone expects, and, along the way, life as we know it will be forever altered.

 

“Noooooooooo!” says anyone who really liked the way things were. “But I’ve lost my job! My house! My business!” say far too many people. “It’s all a hoax! Perpetuated by the Democrats! The Chinese! Big Pharma!” say people who live in breathtaking fear and ignorance. It is not a conspiracy, it is not divine retribution, and no, it’s not fair. It is – and trust me, I hate this expression – what it is: a life changing event, and not just for individuals. Every single person on this planet has been or will be affected by the pandemic. Some people will die, and others will mourn them, but not nearly in the numbers we’ve seen killed by disease throughout history. Our economies will be ravaged, and will have to be rebuilt using new methods and models. Our customs and social interactions have changed, and will continue to change dramatically. We will live differently, shop differently, entertain ourselves differently, and meet new people differently.

 

Which is a long-winded way of saying I don’t know for sure whether I will continue to post almost every day when this strange time is less strange.  I’ve been blogging for over 15 years, through various platforms, and in this time, blogs have gone up and down and then back up again in popularity. In the early days, I posted almost every day, usually stuff about my kids, who were young and oblivious enough not to care. That changed with puberty, when they developed these ridiculous notions about privacy and boundaries. In fact, as more and more people read the blog, the less I can divulge for fear of hurting or impinging on other’s people’s lives and feelings. It IS a bit ridiculous: we live in a world where people don’t hesitate to post photos of their genitals, but freak out if you talk about them in your blog (this is a general reference and not a nod to anyone in particular, OK Gerald?)

 

I love writing this blog and I love hearing back from you, and I will keep it up as long as I have something to say and you want to hear or read it. But I long for a day when I will be spending a larger part of my day living my life rather than writing about it. I love you for caring about my stories, my family, my dogs and my recipes, and I love hearing about yours, but this time last year, I was planning a trip to Istanbul. To buy a purse. That has no place to go.

 

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