Back to Normal?

Some time has passed since my last post. So, this is a longer one, but, be assured, worth your time.

The confluence of middle age and a pandemic is an interesting one.  Introspection upon introspection might be the best way to describe it.  Time in the desert might be another apt metaphor.  To what end is a typical question these days.  Shiny objects, like a fancy home or car, have lost their sheen.  Hard pragmatism has replaced aspirational thinking.  The path now is very intentional, focused on efficiently meeting current and future needs, enjoying travel along the way, and retiring at a reasonable age.  This is not uncommon, I suppose.  Most likely, the pandemic accelerated the process by which this would have been revealed in due course.  

Back to the desert. In April, I hiked Joshua Tree National Park (pictured above) and Cap Homme and Ralph Adams Park, in Palm Desert (pictured below). Like many, I drove through Joshua Tree in one day, starting in the southeast corner (Cottonwood Visitor Center), and stopping briefly, at various sites, including the Ocotillo Patch, Cholla Cactus Gardens, Live Oak (lunch), Skull Rock, Hall of Horrors, before hiking Hidden Valley, and exiting on the northeast corner of the park, in the (actual) town of Joshua Tree. I can best compare the (abbreviated) visit to that scene in National Lampoon’s Vacation, when Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) stands on the rim of the Grand Canyon, puts his arm around the shoulder of his wife, Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo), and says, something to the effect, “very nice, time to go.” Suffice it to say that more time was needed to fully appreciate Joshua Tree, to go bouldering, and, of course, to go on proper hikes.

Cap Homme and Ralph Adams Park, a moonscape, as any, is home to quite a few hiking trails, offering majestic views of the greater Palm Springs area below.  Go early and bring plenty of water, as it tends to get quite hot, even in early Spring.  We set out at 9am, and it was already close to 80 degrees F (about 27 degrees C).  Most importantly, the trails here are dog-friendly, unlike seemingly most in the area.  Again, this hike, one of our shorter ones due to the heat, provided an opportunity to reflect on our vacation, which was ending the next day, and to plan for our return to reality. 

It seems, at least locally, that the worst of the pandemic is behind us.  California plans to reopen on June 15^th: https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/04/06/governor-newsom-outlines-the-states-next-step-in-the-covid-19-pandemic-recovery-moving-beyond-the-blueprint/

With that, it may be time to offer some thoughts about the learnings of the past 15 months (when California entered lockdown mode) and next steps. 

• Hiking.  I have probably done more hiking in the past year than in the past twenty. Chalk that one up to the pandemic.  Hiking on Saturdays and Sundays is de rigueur.  So were Friday early morning hikes, before a standing conference call intervened.  Tuesday or Thursday after work hikes up and down the local hills were not unusual, ostensibly for the benefit of my 3-year old labradoodle, but equally to give me an opportunity to stretch my legs and to try to clear my mind.  A vacation to the Oregon coast last summer featured a number of hikes, including the Cape Sebastian Trail and the Lone Ranch to Cape Ferrelo Loop.  In the past month and a half, in addition to the desert adventures above, I have hiked Mount Diablo State Park, El Corte de Madera Open Space Preserve, Sugarloaf Mountain, and Water Dog Lake Open Space.  Windy Hill Open Preserve, one of my favorites, is planned for the near future.  For the past 15 months, hiking has been a proxy for more extensive travel.  I have not been a plane since February 2020, for a visit to the Portland, Oregon area.  Friends and acquaintances far less intrepid than me have traveled the world, to Croatia, among other places, which I understand is (still) open for business. At some point, I will need to take the next step, to get on a plane, and with appropriate care, start exploring those parts of the world where the pandemic is being managed effectively. 

• Zoom. Like many, I have spent more time on Zoom and competing services than I could ever imagine or hope.  I have attended countless work and volunteer meetings on these platforms.  Add to this birthday parties, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, networking events, and meet ups.  Last year, I used Zoom to teach a law course and discovered the utility and power of breakout rooms to manage a virtual negotiation.  Strangely, now this online world seems more real than the physical world of conference rooms, in-person meetings, conventions, and the like.  Readjusting to this will take some work, even if everyone in the room is fully vaccinated.  To be sure, the “new normal” may look quite different from the old.  

• Work-Life Balance. Shellye Archambeau (Unapologetically Ambitious) calls it “work-life integration,” which is more apt.  Regardless, for information workers the lines have blurred (even more), and the fluidity of the last 15 months will not be going away anytime soon (if at all).  One solution: hiking (without accessing your mobile phone, except perhaps to snap a picture or study a map).  Greater discipline will be required to maintain some form of separation between work and home life.  Vacation coverage, where someone is enlisted to respond to any urgent communications, is one small step. In a recent post, I explore the universal importance of a proper vacation: https://wordpress.com/post/johnpavolotsky.com/321

• Incremental Patience, Perspective, Humanity, and Conservation. Perhaps one of the takeaways from our time in the desert is the need to be more patient and understanding, given the individual and collective challenges faced during this pandemic.  Occasional interruptions are now expected in a work from home setting.  Compassion seemed to increase, at least during the early days of the pandemic.  I recall a similar sentiment in the United States after 9/11, when the country came together and partisan differences melted away, at least temporarily.  Regrettably, partisanship has roared back, and 2021 has made clear (so far) that a pandemic, still raging in many corners of the world, will not and cannot put on pause regional and broader disagreements and conflicts. One positive byproduct of the last 15 months might be a greater focus on and appreciation for limited resources.  How this will be sustained remains to be seen, but there are some promising developments.  

• Soccer. Why? For me, this has been one of the constants, in addition to hiking, in the past 15 months. While matches are played to (mostly) empty stadiums, a match is still a match.  This constancy is not lost on me (or others).  Add to this the camaraderie of occasional in-person games, to counterweight the almost inevitable immersion in the virtual world, and the importance of this cannot be overstated. 

Comments welcomed.