I know we had about three months before all of the lockdowns and closers, but it seems like it has been a few years since I left my home without making sure I had a mask in my pocket. I also can't remember the last time I had an in-person meeting. Do you have Zoom fatigue as I do? In a conversation with a friend the other day, I lamented that I wished for everything to go back to the way it was. His response hit me hard, Bob, it will never be the same! 

My friend is right. It won't be the same. The hard part is not to look at that as a negative, I know things have changed, but it isn't that all of the changes are bad.

I understand that outdoor activities have skyrocketed in popularity. Bicycle shops can't keep bikes in stock, and camping supplies are also hot commodities. It seems since we have to be online much more than before, more people are figuring out ways to get away from it all. In my estimation, that is a great thing. If you need a reason to stop looking at your screens and devices and get outside, watch Netflix's The Social Dilemma documentary.

While I do have Zoom fatigue, that is more in the context of work. It seems that more people are keeping in contact with friends and relatives over the internet like never before. We could do all of this before lockdown, but maybe we were too busy? Being forced to slow down has allowed us to reconnect with our loved ones. I think it has made us realize we need to take life a little slower. We don't need our schedules filled every hour of every day. That is an excellent thing!

Luckily, my children are older and not in K-12 because I know that it has been quite a mixed bag for families. Some have struggled with the online, varied schedule or back to full-time school that the start of the school year has brought. While some have struggled, some have reevaluated school and found that an initial chaotic situation is working out for the better. 

I know that there are still a lot of families struggling. There are too many out of work or finding the balance hard. As we move forward, we will find that what has been hard for most it going to help us take a fresh look at life, work, school, and many other things. It will help us make sure that what we spend our time and money on are the things that matter most to us, and that is something good that will come from 2020.

My wife and I recently got the opportunity to go to Disney World. For us, it was probably a once in a lifetime trip. We timed our visit to be at one of the quietest times of the year, and everyone said it was not as busy, but if that is the quiet time, I don't want to ever be there during a peak time. Everywhere we went, there were thousands of others with the same plan. At one point, the new Millennium Falcon ride had a wait of two hundred and ten minutes. I can not understand why anyone would wait over three hours to get on a ride, any ride!

While at times, it was overwhelming to see all the people in these multiple parks, there was one thing I noticed that made me smile. 

Mixed in with all the children, parents, grandparents, and strollers were wheelchairs, special needs strollers,  mobility scooters, and others with special needs. 

The best part is not that they stuck out, but they were a normal part of the crowd. In ride lines, in the shows, those who had special needs were not separated or left out. There was no difference in how they were enjoying the attractions. I also really loved how the staff are well trained and act like they have helped people who need assistance millions of times. I never saw anybody look as if it was an imposition, and it always seemed like a normal part of the day. Dad's lifting kids out of wheelchairs and on to rides, mom's helping kids and adults getting on to some of the classic attractions, all of it happening with no fanfare. 

Twenty plus years ago, when we took our children to Disneyland, I remember feeling like we stood out. I can't remember seeing many others like us. While we got to skip some of the lines, it was always an awkward situation.

This time around, I got to see many others like our family enjoying the day like everyone else, and it made me smile.

When I was young, I remember hearing stories about those who were part of the generation that lived through the depression, stashing money, and other valuables in their mattresses. As a young man who had not had much experience, this seemed unnecessary, but I had never seen a bank close, I had never had a time where food was not in my refrigerator. I had spent my life sheltered by my parents in very safe and stable times. The most I went through was the gas shortages in the seventies, and even that seemed more like an inconvenience than a real crisis. I was young and didn't have a job, so my memories are of waiting in line to get gas in my parent's car, which was more of a nuisance for a young boy.

Not having lived through those tough times in history like the Spanish flu or even the Great Depression, I have only accounts from those who lived through it. It made a huge lasting impression on them and created life-long habits for them of things that I would never have thought to do.

What we are experiencing is, so far, not as bad as those times, but I still wonder what will be the lasting impression the pandemic leaves us with?

So far, besides a lot of hoarding and hysteria and homemade masks, what will be the stories people tell of 2020 in one hundred years?

I hope that it is remembered more for the acts of kindness and generosity that I see from people all over the country and world. 

Acts like the teacher who delivered donated computers to all of his special needs students who were at home. The church that started a food drive to deliver groceries to the families in the community who had none. Maybe even the non-profit that set up a hospital in Central Park would be a better remembrance than the silliness I see on the news every night. 

It seems to me that the good far outways the bad but the bad gets all the press. 

That is why I loved seeing John Krasinski doing his youtube videos called Some Good News. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOe_y6KKvS3PdIfb9q9pGug

And that is why I started doing Mr. Bob tells a story. https://youtu.be/JGdY7E4Pjug If we each can do just one thing for our friends, neighbors, or even strangers, it will change the world. 

I know that not everyone is in a place to be able to help, but here is the good news. Those of us who are, are here for you! Share what is going on so we can do our best to do what God called us to do. That is, to love our neighbor as ourselves. 

The official end of summer just passed, and I feel like it just started. I had an extensive list of things I wanted to accomplish, and I haven't made it very far down that list. It is so hard to gauge just how much we can achieve, but that doesn't stop us from making a list and then being upset with ourselves for not getting it all done. 

We do the same thing with our kids. There is always another therapy or doctor or program. There is still one more thing we could be doing to make sure our child succeeds. 

I am not sure why we think this is true? Even thou my son is an adult, there are still moments when I think, if only we had done that one more thing. It isn't as if there was something we didn't do. He had therapies, there were always people coming and going from our house. He was involved in Therapeutic horseback riding. He saw specialist after specialist. He had the surgeries that they recommended and other procedures that helped him make progress. We even paid for a summer program that brought specialist from a former communist block country. 

We did all of these things for our son, and yet I still feel there is more we could have done.

The reality is, we had three children, not one. We had other obligations, work, family, among other things. 

We did what we could to make the most difference for our son while maintaining some sanity. Which I can't say always worked, but we gave our best. We need to remember that years from now it won't be the one more therapy or doctor visit that will matter. 

It will be the time spent as a family, the trips, the moments you will share fondly, and all the inside jokes that only another person who was there when it happened would think is funny. 

Therapies, doctors, and procedures are essential. Figuring out how to be a family and how to do life together is more important, and those memories are more important than all the other things we could provide.