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Grieving Our Old Normal

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Grieving Our Old Normal

Dec. 23, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET
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Video by Lindsay Crouse, Kirby Ferguson and Emily Holzknecht

Ms. Crouse is a writer and producer in Opinion. Mr. Ferguson is a documentary filmmaker. Ms. Holzknecht is an associate producer in Opinion.

That’s right: We’re all two years older than when we first shut ourselves inside for lockdown. If we assumed the Covid pandemic would be brief, we were wrong. So if you feel like a withered old sloth these days wallowing around and yearning for your old life, that’s understandable. But there’s no use. It’s gone.

The stunning number of lives lost to Covid is its own appalling tragedy. But the video above is about a different kind of grief many of us are experiencing right now: the kind that comes with the gnawing realization that we really need to grieve the parts of our lives that have disappeared, even as they continue to slip away. As another year ends and Covid surges again, it’s clear nothing will change soon.

Forget resilience. Forget silver linings. Right now, it’s time to decide: How do we mourn everything we’ve lost? Once we do that, hopefully at some point, we can attempt something even harder: moving on.

Lindsay Crouse (@lindsaycrouse) is a writer and producer in Opinion. Kirby Ferguson (@remixeverything) is a documentary filmmaker. Emily Holzknecht (@eholzknecht) is an associate producer in Opinion.

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