We had our “Groove this week on Monday because Passover started on Saturday night and it’s celebrated with evening dinners called seders on the first two nights. And this coming Sunday will be Easter, hence “inter-holiday.” We on the ‘Groove who celebrate talked about our seders. After a year of pandemic the enthusiasm to generate and join Zooms wasn’t as fervent as it was last year. A couple people had fully Zoom’ed seders, making dinner for themselves at home in front of the screen, a couple did hybrids with a small celebration in “real life” with family and friends and a laptop on the table for people to join on Zoom from different homes, states and countries, and several decided to forego the celebration all together. People are a little burned out. We talked about what the holiday was about with those who don’t observe it, that it’s the celebration of the biblical Exodus from Egypt and we discussed the ritualized dinner to memorialize it, but really the whole enthusiasm for it wasn’t there. This past pandemic year is taking a toll on us.
We comfortably moved on to our new “normal” of talking about whatever comes up as we rolled along. We talked about how people may flirt with their eyes above the masks as people did in the past, above fans. We asked whether posting pictures of ourselves wearing masks on dating profiles made sense and decided that not only it didn’t but that it was sort of a turn-off because it was a reminder of this difficult time we’re in, and who needs that when you’re looking for love?
We talked about the big ship blocking the Suez canal and speculated what it would do to our economy, and to our toilet paper supply which is apparently threatened by this since the ship was transporting it. Somehow Jewish mayors of big cities came up, like of Dublin and of Mexico. We talked about who our first crushes were, at ages under 10, and as early as 5 someone remembered the full name of his first crush. Then we talked about the foreign languages we’ve tried learning and the foreign people we’ve tried dating. We went from talking about the cause of the Irish potato blight to celebrating the release of a commercial jingle one of our regulars helped create. Then we reminisced about other jingles from over the years and which were the worst earworms, then about the pharmaceutical product the new jingle advertised and the side effects of drugs and why people don’t like taking them even when they should, especially for mental illnesses. Then we talked about famous people who suffered mental illness, like Ernest Hemingway, and how our new understanding of some of these maladies they suffered can inform how we revisit history. Then we talked about religious figures and how many of them may have been schizophrenic, like many people regarded as prophets and saints, and perhaps the founders of Scientologists and even the Mormons. Then we talked about famous successful Mormons, and “The Book of Mormon” musical, and also “Fiddler on the Roof.” This led to talking about Broadway shows and how those of us who live in New York really miss them, and how Cuomo has suggested a “passport” one could get once we are vaccinated to prove we are safe to go inside and this would allow entry into shows and encourage opening of the arts facilities. We discussed whether this was safe or violative of privacy but most of us want the arts back so much we’d probably go for it, especially since we’ve forfeited so much of our privacy over the years with the internet and social media. We talked about how Miami opened too soon and we’re worried, how Florida Governor DeSantis is called DeathSantis because under his early opening of Florida, and of Miami in particular, the State COVID death toll has increased. Then we discussed Dr. Berk’s recent interview where she said the first 100,000 deaths from COVID couldn’t be prevented, but the next 450,000 could have. Someone commented that the NYC residential uptown neighborhoods see people consistently wearing masks and having lower COVID cases, while in midtown and other NY neighborhoods people aren’t wearing masks, which explains the unfortunate rise in sickness and death in the tristate area despite so many people getting the vaccines.
