PANDEMIC DIARY

My First Cup

July 14, 2020

My first cup of coffee is no longer rushed or harried. I don’t gulp while dressing for work. I don’t stand and devour the last drop as I am heading for the door. No longer do I ‘drive-in’ then navigate a steaming paper cup of coffee while accelerating. I do not hold an attache case in one hand with a folder under the other arm carrying a morning brew attempting to open the door to my office. And, I have not ordered a coffee and bagel from a coffee cart in decades.

Coffee was made at 6:30 this morning.
It is now 8:30. Coffee gone. The day starts.

The regimen of the retired.

Yet, this is the only part of the day that has been and remains a constant. In this new world, I am totally responsible for filling my day…”fulfilling my day”. There is no company, no boss, no directive from anyone. I am not part of a project, plan, system or strategy that relies on me - depends on production of materials, demands a deadline for completion or the generation of a critical report. I am Chairman of the Board, CEO and President of my days. But, wait, wasn’t that always true? Did that fact get lost during all those years?

I am thinking about the personal sacrifices I made, we all make, in compliance with life’s ‘necessities’, demands and obligations?

And, what of ourselves may have been sacrificed?