For the past two years, life was interrupted. Concerts were cancelled. Theatres were shuttered. Most people wore masks, interfering with the joy of seeing a passing pedestrian’s smile. Library books had to be reserved via internet and picked up from a table set on the sidewalk, just outside the doors. Businesses instituted curb pick-ups.
However, computers and cameras helped to bridge the social gap, presenting both meetings and lectures, as well as family time. Some concerts will continue to remain online, a great help to this Early Music fan. However, although an online concert saves a trip into Boston’s traffic and difficult parking, it doesn’t match the thrill of live music. A neighbor, who is a musician, has returned to performance. I can feel his joy reading his posts. I was thrilled to be able to attend one of the last performances of the year at Tanglewood. It featured Judy Collins and Richard Thompson, whose onstage appearances I try not to miss. Shakespeare & Company presented a full season during 2021, largely out-of-doors and with a mask mandate. This year, the company felt secure enough to move some performances inside. I am happily looking forward to the 2023 presentations which include August Wilson’s Fences, a play I have wanted to see for years.
Summer also saw the return of another community event: the art fair. I spent a day in Lenox, doing volunteer work. During my lunch break, I discovered an extensive, outdoor fair. Painters, photographers, potters, sculptors and weavers displayed their work in small tents of the kind our medieval ancestors saw on tournament days. There was also live music on a grassy space parallel to the street.
I still wear a mask because I am still hesitant to shop and even to take walks without one. When I will be comfortable going out unmasked is not something I can predict.
Despite these improvements in our social lives, I am happy to see this year come to an end. It was a year of tensions as the reality of our politics became more well known. Concern for the rapidly disappearing wildlife and the photos of the Father of Waters — the once Mighty Mississippi — weigh heavily. Then, there is the horror of Putin’s attack on Ukraine. What sort of future will my grandchildren face?
I will close the year by spending Christmas with my daughter’s family as I have since the century began. Her daughters, 9 and 5, decorated the tree, which is smaller than the family’s usual choice. My daughter reported that girls managed to cram every ornament onto the tree. She also sent a photo of that very colorful addition to the living room.
I am adding to the holiday by bringing some mini-cake pans, shaped in seasonal forms: Christmas trees and stars. The kids will help making holiday cinnamon buns for breakfast on Christmas Eve. Whether we will follow the Christmas tradition of making brioche for Christmas breakfast is still to be decided.
I hope to finish the last present, a pillowcase for the younger granddaughter if I can translate the instructions from the Greek. Just playing upon, “It’s Greek to me,” as this simple item is difficult to construct.
My other grandchildren, my son’s family, are in South Korea where my son is stationed. I hope the family present I sent will arrive before Christmas.
By the time this piece is published, Christmas will have passed. But, as this year fades away, we all should welcome the relief of the new and to remain hopeful that we will solve our economic, political and environmental problems.
I wish that each and every one of you will have had a merry and peaceful Christmas and that the New Year will be more stable, more peaceful and more bountiful than the last.
Susan Wozniak has been a case worker, a college professor and journalist. She is a mother and grandmother.