Today I’m reminiscing on early March 2020, when this was all just brewing and about to explode. My late February/ early March schedule was hectic: fly from my home in NY to DC for CPAC for the week, fly from DC to LA for a week of work, fly from LA to DC for a speech, fly back to NY from DC to reset for a couple of days before heading to Dallas for an important meeting.
After Dallas, I had seven speeches on the calendar in the next two months, and I was so excited. What a TIME to be alive!
But my last morning in Dallas in mid-March had a different vibe. 15 Days to Slow the Spread was announced. I flew home that day and remember being eerily creeped out by the new masks I saw on everyone’s faces in the airport. I was confused: weren’t the politicians and health leaders telling us masks are pointless?
I went right from the airport to a nearby restaurant where my family was having dinner, and I remember us saying, “this is so weird, should we even be here?” because the 15 days was going to start soon.
My mom and I decided to have a little fun with the 15 days: we spent the last day before the shut down started going to Home Depot to get some home renovation equipment for projects around the property.
Looking back, that was a time of unknowns and assumptions, especially the belief that it would end after 15 days and that it would be over by Easter.
But it’s just kept going. The bureaucrats that once told us “15 days to slow the spread” soon changed it to “30 days to slow the spread” with a chance of having things return to normal by summer. Any claims that they would keep us like this until a vaccine was treated like radical right-wing conspiracy theories.
But now look at us. Entering December 2020 with the possibility of a potential national lockdown, and Dr. Fauci is telling us masks, and social distancing should still be mandatory even AFTER a vaccine.
Is there an end in sight anymore? Is there even a goal? Or are we just supposed to live like this until they decide what they want to do with us next?
