Keep your travelgrams to yourself. Nope! It’s just too soon. Pardon the overt social shame, but if you’re posting happy, bubbly, #blessed travel photos to Facebook, Insta and the rest of social, you can be sure that everyone scrolling on the other end is either rolling their eyes or searching for the “unfollow” button.
Or “snooze.” Or “Jesus Christ, go away.” We get it. You just want to go back to normal. We all do. But, in the name of common purpose — and pure human decency — please stop. No one (zero people, total) wants to see you in a t-shirt and Ray-Bans rejoicing with unmasked friends in scenic places. Spare us the open-top Jeep. We hate you.
The whole world wants to open up and get “back” to life. As of today, more than 120 million Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Arms everywhere are sore. That’s great news, and we’re well on our way to a COVID-controlled summer. Joy surely cometh. In other parts of the country, though, and around the globe, numbers are still a bit grim. In our wallets, the hit is hard and will take years — not months — to recover.
And in our streets, a new killing in Minneapolis is stoking tensions, yet again. If we learned anything last year, it is that a lot of people are in a lot of pain in this country. You might even maybe quite possibly know some of them. You’re more than welcome to enjoy your life. You do you. But please hold the travelgrams.
The weeks and months ahead will test all of our social grace. Some rituals will come back full force, but some will never return. I don’t personally see the human handshake going anywhere, but the five-day commute is forever a goner, especially for the laptop class. Some of these post-pandemic “adjustments” will make our lives better; some will just be frustrating changes to countless generations of human behavior. But most will just take some time. Like posting your latest travel pics. At the moment, they are as enraging as the stories of your pandemic escape to the Hamptons. For now, keep ’em to yourself. It’s just too soon.