Thank you for writing this and further opening the conversation. Many scholars are, of course, addressing the questions you've put forth and there have been (and still are) efforts at memorialization of those we have lost to the pandemic. In 2020, I created a pandemic loss project that is centered in language and specificity. It was a site for Kentuckians but after it was featured on NPR, we went national. Because of this work, I became a visiting scholar at GWU, with their "Rituals in the Making" pandemic remembrance project. We work on all the questions you've posed and many more. I invite you to look at whowelost.org and ritualsinthemaking.com to see what we've done. I invite you not to be smug and point out that your questions aren't new but rather to welcome you into this realm, which (I have found) other writers and some academics look down on. I have ended friendships in the past five years when fellow poets have turned up their nose at The WhoWeLost Project and deemed it "not literary." Personally, I cannot think of anything more "literary" because you are correct -- we must address what has happened.
Thanks for sharing about these projects, Martha. I'm shocked and disturbed to hear that friends, poets/writers have had a negative response to such positive and important work.
We certainly all grieve/cope differently and I'm sure there are always some who remain in a state of semi-permanent denial in the face of horrors like the pandemic as a method of self-preservation.
It's really an additional tragedy for those who are in a continuous state/stage of avoidance.
It angers me that so many people tried to discredit Dr. Fauci. And still do try.
The Covid Pandemic coincided with my retirement. I was used to being around a lot of people, then, abruptly no people at all.
I got all my shots and never got the Covid.
Oddly, it was a very productive writing time for me. Also, I was suddenly getting a lot of publications. That was new for me. When I was working full time my life as a writer was very different, much more, how shall I say, subdued. I was writing but sending out very little work. So the Covid period changed my life, my writing life, quite a bit.
You're not the only person I've heard say that, luckily, the arrival of covid aligned with their retirement. Phew. That's really a relief in certain ways. In the same breath, I know how much people look forward to getting to do as they please in retirement and so the pandemic was not a nice entry into a period of your life. Sounds like you made the most of it though!
I clicked on the link in today's email that connected to your writing about your mother, how she died. I am so sorry and I know that saying so does nothing, and yet I felt my eyes welling as I read, and felt the impulse to reach out.
You reminded me that I am gratedul that if my brother had to die, he died in 2019.
I have so many thoughts about this, I will have to sort them before I reply.
I hear you 💜💜
Thank you for writing this and further opening the conversation. Many scholars are, of course, addressing the questions you've put forth and there have been (and still are) efforts at memorialization of those we have lost to the pandemic. In 2020, I created a pandemic loss project that is centered in language and specificity. It was a site for Kentuckians but after it was featured on NPR, we went national. Because of this work, I became a visiting scholar at GWU, with their "Rituals in the Making" pandemic remembrance project. We work on all the questions you've posed and many more. I invite you to look at whowelost.org and ritualsinthemaking.com to see what we've done. I invite you not to be smug and point out that your questions aren't new but rather to welcome you into this realm, which (I have found) other writers and some academics look down on. I have ended friendships in the past five years when fellow poets have turned up their nose at The WhoWeLost Project and deemed it "not literary." Personally, I cannot think of anything more "literary" because you are correct -- we must address what has happened.
Thanks for sharing about these projects, Martha. I'm shocked and disturbed to hear that friends, poets/writers have had a negative response to such positive and important work.
We certainly all grieve/cope differently and I'm sure there are always some who remain in a state of semi-permanent denial in the face of horrors like the pandemic as a method of self-preservation.
It's really an additional tragedy for those who are in a continuous state/stage of avoidance.
It angers me that so many people tried to discredit Dr. Fauci. And still do try.
The Covid Pandemic coincided with my retirement. I was used to being around a lot of people, then, abruptly no people at all.
I got all my shots and never got the Covid.
Oddly, it was a very productive writing time for me. Also, I was suddenly getting a lot of publications. That was new for me. When I was working full time my life as a writer was very different, much more, how shall I say, subdued. I was writing but sending out very little work. So the Covid period changed my life, my writing life, quite a bit.
It also changed my whole lifestyle.
You're not the only person I've heard say that, luckily, the arrival of covid aligned with their retirement. Phew. That's really a relief in certain ways. In the same breath, I know how much people look forward to getting to do as they please in retirement and so the pandemic was not a nice entry into a period of your life. Sounds like you made the most of it though!
I did, Mark. Thanks for getting back to me.
I clicked on the link in today's email that connected to your writing about your mother, how she died. I am so sorry and I know that saying so does nothing, and yet I felt my eyes welling as I read, and felt the impulse to reach out.
You reminded me that I am gratedul that if my brother had to die, he died in 2019.