The last however many months have been challenging to say the least - high expectations for a great year were dashed somewhere in February or March when we started staying home due to the global pandemic. It’s still weird to even say, because it feels like we’re living through such a profoundly surreal time.

We are living through a profoundly surreal time. During this time there has been a global rebellion pushing for equality for all - with serious conversations related to defunding the police and the inequitable treatment of Black people across the world, and specifically the USA. People I never would have expected to be talking about abolition are having real conversations about it.

There has been a push towards returning back to normal, as if the pandemic is over and not increasing in numbers. There is increased and unreported police violence across states in the USA. I’m not sure what to do beyond show up and donate, but we’ve been donating often to a variety of causes and groups both official and unofficial to try and support these efforts. I’ve been writing more letters to government members expressing my views, and leveraging my priviledged position where ever possible.

In the more personal - we had registered our child in school starting this year, and now we’re not going to be sending him due to inadequate funding, and just generally not trusting that our government will support teachers, schools, and school boards in ensuring adequate social distancing, or masks, and also questioning the purpose or efficacy of junior kindergarten under these circumstances.

Before he was born, we had talked about homeschooling, so it seems the pandemic has forced our hand towards that direction this year and I’m glad we already considered it. It’s a much different set up than what I would have been inclined towards - I was more interested in small homeschooling groups or outdoor activity groups, but I suppose we’ll figure it all out at some point. We will have to.