This is no picnic

Let’s have a pity party about how we can’t have a picnic party. At least, not all sitting on the same blanket. (Dutch Nationaal Archief)

Millions of American schoolchildren are returning to their routine today after the Thanksgiving holiday, along with the many workers who were fortunate enough to have a bit of time off.

Usually, the return to school and work is a pleasant one. Having had a break, we feel refreshed and relaxed and eager to reconnect with classmates or coworkers.

I have observed that this is not the case during the pandemic. The breaks, necessary though they are, are not as significant a shift from the regular routine as we might wish. And for many of us, there isn’t a way to reconnect with our colleagues the way we might want to. We return to a world of staring at a computer screen — or navigating a perilous world of masks and unnatural distance from others.

Since the pandemic began, Mondays are harder than they used to be, and post-vacation Mondays harder still. There is perhaps an unconscious hope that, upon your return, everything will be normal. When it’s not, it’s a big letdown.

I don’t blame you if you’re feeling a little or a lot burned out, or disappointed, or depressed. The rhythms that we have relied upon our entire lives have been disrupted, we are separated from family and friends, and people are dying every day of a highly contagious disease. It’s good to have a reality check every now and then: this is no picnic.

We can find our way through these challenging times. We can make the best of the opportunities we have for recreation and rest. But we might still show up on the Monday after a vacation feeling like we’re ready for a vacation.

This is my advice to the teachers, parents, and other leaders out there: Prepare for everyone to show up exhausted and miserable today. Be pleasantly surprised if that is not the case, but be ready in case I’m right.

The prevailing mood will get better as we all ease back into the routine of the Time of Covid and accept that, though another holiday has come and gone, the pandemic remains. We humans are resilient and adaptable, and we can handle difficult circumstances. Such hard times are easier to bear when we focus on reality instead of wishing for things to be different.

But there’s something about time away that might make us a bit wistful, especially on a holiday that triggers strong memories of how things used to be. We let our guard down for a moment. “Is it over? Maybe it’s over. Maybe it will be over soon.” It’s not over.

Welcome to another Monday, same as the one before, same as the one before, but kind of worse even though it’s the same. Perhaps because it’s the same, and this time we expected something different. We don’t have to like it. But we do have to accept it. And, separated though we are from each other, we can help each other through it.