COVID – Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3

The Before Times. Today begins the round of family and friend holiday gatherings that follow Christmas. In Chicago basements and dining rooms. In the occasional pizza parlor on the Northwest Side. I call it The Before Times because it was before Trump. Before COVID. Before Trump again. Before some of the folks in this picture from 2014 succumbed to illness, divorced, or on the flip side gotten married and had kids, or seen their kids finish college and move on.

Like I said, before so much.

These gatherings were and are always fun. Always a bit tedious. Always full of laughter. Always with an air of tension. Always always.

While they still happen, so much has changed. Families have separated and merged into new families with new family traditions. The younger ones have scattered across the country and don’t always come back for the holidays as they build their own. As a matter of fact, we’re in the midst of building a new one with my daughter and our grandkids. One family grouping continues the bi-weekly Zoom call that began during COVID.

But that’s life and the part of life that holidays always remind us of. Regardless of what’s happening within our family circles or outside of them, life goes on. It is just always changing.

You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Happy Christmas Eve! Sitting here away from and missing home, waiting for the clock to run out on my COVID quarantine (so far a very mild case). Life hits. You take the punch. You move on. So moving on, here’s some Christmas Eve Sunday Morning Reading to share.

Kicking off with a couple of pieces from one of my favorite writers, David Todd McCarty. First up for those into the holiday gift giving thing he offers The Ol’ Bowling Ball Bag Gift.

Following that with another holiday themed piece about how small moments with a family can turn into life long touchstones in We’re All Tired, Dear.

Keeping in the holiday vein, Megan Angelo gives us My Selfish Christmas Tradition—And How You Can Do It Too.

Christmas is a time for new smartphones. NatashaMH takes on what happens if you lose your new precious in A Slave to The Machine.

Stepping away from the holidays for a bit, David Pierce has an excellent piece on The Fediverse entitled 2023 in Social Media: The Case for the Fediverse.

And just to keep things real amidst the holiday hoopla, Rogé Karma takes on Private Equity, one of the several unseen dangers lurking in our midst in The Secretive Industry Devouring the U.S. Economy.

To close out back to the holidays spotllighting an Icelandic folk tale of Jólakötturinn, The Yule Cat that eats children who don’t wear the new clothes they received on Christmas. Guess you better don those new socks tomorrow morning.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.