It doesn't HAVE to be "what it is"

It's easy to forget (and maybe some people don't know it) but when the Baltimore Orioles are playing a game on the road, the radio and TV announcers who are giving us the play-by-play are right here in Baltimore, in studios at Oriole Park, describing action from hundreds of miles away.

And you know what? It doesn't make a difference. They're watching the game on TV monitors just as we are at home, and calling the balls and strikes, hits and errors. I haven't heard one announcer yet say anything like, "Man oh man, if only we were actually in Tampa Bay/Philadelphia/Buffalo (home of the Toronto Blue Jays) (long story)." No, they give us a professional job, and it leads me to wonder, when/if the long-predicted miracle occurs and the covid "just goes away...No question it will go away. Hopefully sooner rather than later" as underinformed officials have repeatedly stated, what changes in our society will it leave behind.

TV weather and traffic reporters are doing their work from home just fine.

Jobs? Well, the baseball announcers might just not travel again. Small potatoes as compared to 51,000,000 Americans currently unemployed and wondering what the future has in store for them. Some say that as many as 40% of restaurants will close. Schools will open, either in person or online, but that's all up in the air. Will we ever feel like gathering in huge enclosed arenas again? Do you understand that in 2030, there will be college history classes teaching one topic: "2020 101"?

In 2001, after 9/11, we learned that global terrorism was indeed just as likely to occur here as elsewhere. Seven years later, when the big banks tottered on the edge and we skirted past the specter of another 1930's-style Great Depression, we saw that it could happen again, and now we see that the 1918 Pandemic, which to our memory was some grainy black and white footage of jampacked hospitals and morgues, was not unique.

We can come out of this better, when vaccines are introduced and we learn to live in a new way. More people might be working from home, and how bad can that be? New innovations will lead to new industries and new jobs. And when we all look back on 2020 and shout "Humbug" at its very mention, the wise among us will be looking for ways to make sure it doesn't happen again.

1918

Things come back. I have to feel that the economy will, too, but will we be the same as we were in January of this year?

And, do we WANT to be?