Class Note 1978
What will you no longer take for granted in 2021?
“Hugging,” writes Anne Bagamery. “I never realized how much that simple act meant,” agrees Scott Marber. “A handshake, hug, or kiss as a greeting,” says Marc Brovender. “From grandchildren to 93-year-old Mom!” adds Barbie Martinez.“Touch,” is Chris Hughes’ answer. “Sterling’s first grandchild is due in July. We so hope to be able to touch him.” For Amy Berg it is “being in a crowd,” while for Harriet Reynolds it is “the din of happy voices” in a playground. Helen Lukash and Jim Vailas point to in-person visits with friends—“whether with food and drink, outdoor fun, or a laugh or cry,” adds Melinda Kassen.
Travel and cherished activities top the list for some: “rowing” (Brooks Clark); “live performing arts” (Alan Reynolds); “spring skiing in Vail [Colorado]” (Diane Boyer); “going to the range with my son to hit practice balls” (Bill Petit); “being able to jump on a plane and go see my 97-year-old mom” (Jim Bullion); “international travel”(Doug Barham). Will Fraizer agrees, saying, “to travel when and where I want and to see parts of the wider world again.” Richard Heath cites “the ability to use any form of public transportation without taking some significant form of health protection.” Maggie Fellner Hunt says, “What I miss and will never take for granted again is the ability to make plans.”
“I will no longer take the flu shot for granted,” comments Carolyn Kelley Evans. “That I’ll even make it to 2021,” quips Rick Barrows.“The time that’s left,” says Robert Kaler. Lisa Kaeser writes that after 20 years at National Institutes of Health, “I shouldn’t be surprised by anything. But I will no longer take it for granted that if you do the studies and present the data, people will listen to scientists. (Lysol, really?)”
“The future” is Michael Elitzer’s laconic response. “The right to vote,” comments Neil McCarthy. “Civilization,” says Len Weiser-Varon. “Covid-19, relative to some of the historic pandemics, is fairly nonlethal. If something combining stealth transmission and greater harm to humans came along, all our know-how might not preserve us from calamitous depopulation.” Jim Lattin says he has a “newfound appreciation for the sudden perishability of abundance: how quickly the things that surround us and that we depend on can suddenly disappear from our lives.”
“I will no longer take for granted accurate and independent local news” says Jim Friedlich, CEO of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, parent company of The Philadelphia Inquirer and a 501c3 dedicated to sustaining local public service journalism. “Covid-19 has been a gut-punch to an already challenged local news industry. When I went to shelter with my family at our farm outside of Woodstock, New York, my beloved Woodstock Times announced it was ceasing publication. Dozens of publishers have followed suit. These past few weeks have reminded me just how fragile are these great American news enterprises and how vital their survival.”
Let’s remember!
—Rick Beyer, 1305 S. Michigan Ave., #1104, Chicago, IL 60605; rickbeyer78@gmail.com
