Virtual Connections
March 2020 to the present
We have taken social distancing precautions seriously and drastically curtailed our excursions and interactions with other people. Much of that isolation was not by choice, as businesses closed and group gatherings were banned. We have kept old events on the calendar and still see notes for things long cancelled, like trips, Padres games, and opera and theater performances.
Before the pandemic, neither of us had even heard of the Zoom conferencing app. Now it is an integral part of our life. One of Bob’s sisters set up a standing Zoom date on Sunday afternoons, that family members can drop into to check in with each other. Some of Meredith’s continuing legal education conferences use Zoom.
Various groups at Meredith’s rowing club have adopted Zoom as a way to gather, virtually, including the rowing team for its monthly meetings (one is shown above), and for trivia nights and a virtual awards banquet.
Her dinner crew meets once or twice a month for a “cocktail hour” before dinner. At one gathering the attendees modeled masks.
We have enjoyed educational sessions offered by the San Diego Opera.
The parish book club has moved online and meets twice a month in Zoom sessions. We recently finished James Martin’s The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything, and we are now reading St. Therese of Lisieux’s Story of a Soul.
A silver lining in the pandemic cloud has been the chance to make connections we might not otherwise have done. During the summer, Meredith participated in yoga Zoom sessions organized by a rower she knows in Colorado. Most of the other participants live in the Fort Collins area. Ever since March, she has joined with several Avalon Rowing Club members who live on the East Coast in a Rosary prayer group every Friday by Zoom. (Feel free to send us your prayer intentions!)
Casey approves of anything that keeps his people in one place — whether it is sitting on the couch or lying on a yoga mat – and he is quick to settle in with us. We sometimes call him “Zoom Cat.”
Although it is wonderful to be able to connect by video, we do experience “Zoom fatigue” and find there is a limit to the amount of screen time we can enjoy.