I remember reading an article about the Great Depression and how it affected the children who lived through it. The article said that people who were mature adults before the Depression were largely able to return to "normal" after it ended, but that the children had no semblance or idea of "normal" to return to. The fear of being without stayed with them for the rest of their lives. I don't know if this were true with my parents as they were dirt poor before the Depression: that was the norm for them.

While this period of history will, hopefully, be much shorter than the Great Depression, I wonder how it will affect impressionable children. While it was amusing that my six year old grandson Henry did not want to hug me yesterday so as not to "catch" poison ivy, I am not sure that he would have reacted that way last year. He and I went to the park down the road a week or so ago and the swing-set was covered with orange webbing. Henry remarked about it and I asked him if he knew why it was covered and without missing a beat, he said, "Because of the corona virus."

What will he remember in ten years from now? And what will adults remember in ten years from now? Have we learned a lesson about being prepared? Will we live in fear of another pandemic? How will that affect our children?

Given the divisiveness in the country centering on Trump's cult who follow him blindly and recklessly and the rest of us who look at him and his cohorts in horror, I am not sure that we can ever recover or trust one another or a politician again.