Editor’s Corner: Get up, Show Up, Lift Up
by John O’Brien, Jr. @Jobjr
I feel that it’s time to get up; stay home; and use the time there to improve your future, whatever it may be. I am trying, despite COVID’s unique ability to sap my energy. It appears we’ve avoided another shutdown, for another week or who knows. The expected surge of COVID-19 over the Thanksgiving holiday did not occur. Most credible experts attribute it to most people acting responsibly, wearing masks, keeping their distance, etc. Even though 4.9 million people traveled, that’s way down from the 50 million that usually do the extended Thanksgiving weekend. Christmas had large numbers too, but only a fraction of the usual holiday travel.
Many here in the US on Visas couldn’t risk going home for Christmas, in case they couldn’t get back. I remember the Mad Dash in March as bands here for their St. Patrick’s Day tours and celebrations had to cut off and head home, smartly realizing that they may not be able to go home at all if they didn’t get out before the lockdowns were mandated.
Home for Christmas
Plus, Ireland has closed its borders again. You won’t go home and isolate for two weeks if you are only going home for five days. The same is true in reverse. I have tried to help a band or three with US visa apps, wanting to come here for their annual Christmas Tours. The embassies in Ireland are closed. Closed means no processing, and therefore, no visas being approved. Even approved ones are sitting on desks idly waiting for the resumption of service.
Christmas is family, tradition, certainly, and home. So if you know of someone isolated on this side of the Atlantic, Irish or not, offer them a virtual home invitation if you can. It doesn’t have to be a holiday to help out the lonely, the separated or the single. We all need somebody … Somebody like you.
…
Nuair a stadann an ceol, stadann an rince
(When the music stops, so does the dance)
John
“Follow me where I go, what I do, and who I know;
