Across the county, some residents are feeling newly nostalgic for things they once considered onerous … like, meetings: church meetings, town meetings, school meetings, PTO meetings and all the rituals that go with them. Just give us a meeting to attend and we feel like saying any or all of the following: “Yes, I’ll take the minutes,” “I appreciate your input,” “That’s a good idea!” and “I can help.”
And how about fundraisers? At first, COVID-19 and the restrictions that came with it promised relief from that dreaded task of asking for money. No more selling raffle tickets, soliciting gift basket items and gift certificates from local shops and restaurants, or visiting prospective donors (“Would you consider a gift in the range of …?”). Now, barely two weeks into Gov. Baker’s Draconian restrictions, fundraising volunteers might be pardoned for looking forward to the annual round of friend-raising visits: “It’s good to see you!”
Annual Town Meetings are in danger of becoming the lately lamented rather than the morosely anticipated. Typically held in May and packed to the gills with residents, each bringing their own agenda, no one can say for sure when or even if they will take place this spring. Readers with long memories can count 50 or more Annual Town Meetings under their belts. They know all the usual suspects who turn up to protest a line item in the town budget, or who arrive with their amendment to an article on the warrant, ready to hand over to the town moderator for a vote. And what about those pesky challenges that require paper ballots to preserve voters’ privacy? O, how long we have waited in line and hung around for the results, all the while engaging in desultory conversation with our neighbors. Bring it on, we want to shout now. We want to make an evening of it and hang out with our neighbors.
And how about those food sales, coffee hours and church suppers? Thanks to COVID-19, no more pies to bake, no more wondering if we could get away with using a mix, or — horrors — picking up something at the supermarket. “I’ll bake for you!” some of us want to shout. “I’ll wait tables.” “I’ll host coffee hour!”
We suspect that, if nothing else, the physical distancing rules in the era of coronavirus might have the effect of enhancing our appreciation of one another, with all our foibles.
Maybe, when life as we knew it resumes, the Pioneer Valley School District School Committee will find grounds for compromise on keeping Warwick Community School open. Maybe the Greenfield School Committee and City Council will recognize that they are, in fact, one entity, and not two competing interests. Maybe members of the Wendell State Forest Alliance and the state Department of Conservation and Recreation will find common ground on the issue of logging in state forests. Maybe the “Never Trumpers” and the president’s supporters will accord one another mutual respect as the country battles coronavirus together.
Or not. As President Trump would say, “Time will tell.”