Waiting for the unknown

We are in strange new territory.

Our lives and our world have changed in ways that, even now, we cannot foresee, let alone understand. We are confined to our homes, and waiting, not knowing what’s next, is the worst part.

Our lives go on and we adjust. That’s what we Americans do. We make do, rising each day to face the uncertainty that awaits us outside our doors.

Still, today’s news is sad for this can be the week that shocks us and provides are biggest challenge. It will define us. Death, say the experts, awaits. So we adjust, we brace. Certainly, we squabble and blame, argue and disagree, often in a highly disagreeable fashion.

But still we wait to adjust, and go on.

Our vision of a return to normalcy, to sanity, by Easter is all but gone now. Easter, a time of rebirth, of cleansing, will apparently be neither for our world. Will the return to normalcy come in May? June, maybe July? That, for me, is the hardest part of all hard parts. Not knowing. Perhaps it’s the journalist in me.

Being in the loop, getting answers, making decision-makers answer questions. Getting at the truth of what’s next and when. Knowing.

We are left to obey the laws dictated by President Trump and his staff, of Gov. Holcomb and his staff. We are left seeking answers from Mayor Snow, Commissioners Paust, Burns and Buttters, Dr. Jetmore and Dr. Huth, Craig Kinyon of Reid Hospital and Christine Stinson of the county health department. Locally, I know I have to trust these people and trust their judgement. I applaud them for their work to keep our community safe.

Their instructions are too important to ignore.

But adjustment is never, ever easy. From a day-to-day government standpoint, city, county and school business seems trivial. We sit in front of our computer screens and conduct city and RP&L business, again striving for normalcy, a quest made maddeningly difficult for me as a new member of council.

I want to be in the know, want to be part of the solution, instant or otherwise, want to be the guy with the answers.

But that is not and will not be the case for this is strange new territory. Our lives have changed and our world will continue to change.

Forever. Now we must wait and prepare to adjust.