Our lives are changing, again, and so must our rituals that give it meaning
Birthdays. Weddings. Graduations. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit last year, we watched as old milestones and the rituals we depended on to mark them seemed to vanish into the ether.
If you’re like many people, the early days of the pandemic, and the grief contained in them, likely left you feeling adrift. When I say “grief,” I don’t only mean the devastating loss of life. It’s natural to mourn lost opportunities and celebrations, too.
Almost as soon as we watched some beloved rituals disappear, humans began to do what we do best. We improvised. We got creative. We grew. And soon, whole new rituals were born, from those that rely on technology Zoom cocktail hour, anyone? to others, like peaceful walks in the woods, that depend on nature.
April 28 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm Free
Literarian Jim Van Buskirk leads a discussion of real family secrets and those in James McBride’s “The Color of Water,” Dani Shapiro’s “Inheritance” and Evan Imber-Black’s “The Secret Life of Families.” Presented by Jewish Community Library. Free, with registration.Event Website
A woman holds her daughter as they look at the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020 in New York. What’s normally a chaotic, crowded tourist hotspot during the holiday season is instead a mask-mandated, time-limited, socially distanced locale due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Mark Lennihan/AP)
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