It'a been a long pandemic. I write as if it's over, but statistically speaking it's not. Looking at the North American population data I was surprised at the differences. In Canada, 1 person in ten caught Covid, in the US it was 1 in 4. Amazing considering we were months behind in the ability to obtain vaccines. It probably has to do with population density and the relatively greater numbers of people concentrated in US urban centres, along with higher rates of poverty and those lacking access to medical care. Somebody's got to think about these things and leave it to the former sociology, anthropology and counselling psych student to do just that. It was the US hitting a million Covid deaths that motivated the statistical exploration. In America one in 336 of the overall population died of Covid, in Canada it was 1 in 946.
I was going to write about reemergence as I finally started the process a couple of weekends ago, taking my first in-person painting class after two long years. It was back in the saddle again with Marney-Rose Edge (@edgefineart) reinforcing what I've learned with her in the past - deliciously rich, multi-layered deep, dark backgrounds and transforming ordinary flower photos into watercolour backlit beauties. This one, 11x14, is based on my own reference photos.
Now that our fourth dose of vaccine has taken effect, I'm going to walk on the wild side. Masked, of course. We've been inside a restaurant only three times in two years, as this particular Japanese place has the equivalent of dining in your own little room. We're lucky that outside eating starts early in our neck of the woods. Tonight, though, we'll venture inside to a place more conventional.
On Monday this butterfly will continue her emergence from the cocoon. We will be part of an audience for the first time in ages. We're breaking our fast with a Pink Martini concert, our fourth or fifth over the years, but the first one in three. I'm trusting that the days of hacking audience members are over. I remember going to see the Three Tenors on one New Year's Eve, where the stadium sounded like a TB ward. It even merited mention in a review. I hope those days are gone and that we all learned something about viral spread.