All their lives, my children have been told to stay away from the road. Roads are never safe places for children. Ours is a main road, with fast and nearly constant traffic, so it’s worse than some. But, it’s safe enough to walk along, if you’re paying attention, and my children are old enough to learn that. So, when they begged me to take them on the road for a couple of short walks, I did.
The first time was a great novelty for them. They especially liked crossing the road. It is a wide road, and long, but its size can’t be appreciated from any single point on the edges of it. Not until you’re out in the middle of it can you experience its vastness. And in that brief moment, you get a feeling of being somewhere you do not belong, a frisson of danger. Even I still get a tiny thrill from it.
Now the novelty of walking along the road is starting to wear off for them, and I’m glad. I don’t particularly like walking on the road, and I particularly dislike having the children with me. It’s safe enough, like I said, for walkers paying attention. My kids do not always pay attention, and I have to keep reminding them to stay behind me and/or to my left. Though I could probably learn to tune out the traffic, our safety also requires me to pay attention to all of the cars, just in case their drivers aren’t paying attention to us. I don’t like having to maintain that level of vigilance.
It was time for my kids to learn some basic road safety, so it’s good that I’ve taught them. But, all things considered, the road is probably riskier for us than the virus is. And let’s be honest: the virus isn’t going to disappear any more than the road is. As a country, we’ve had two chances to get the pandemic under control. We failed the first, and we seem to be failing the second. With no vaccine on the horizon, the virus is going to run its course. I am going to have to adjust to living with the constant risk that it presents, just as I’ve learned to accept the risks of the road.
I am in the process of acquiring masks for the family. Once we get them, we will have the option of going to public places, including the local walking trails. Then I will have to decide if that’s a risk I can adjust to. I hope I can. If I can’t, it’s going to be a long year ahead, even vaster in the middle than when viewed from any point along the edges of it. But, unlike the road, there will be no thrill in the crossing of it.