A lot of the things we're accustomed to have nearly disappeared during the pandemic. Some are obvious--concerts, restaurant dining, handshakes, and so on. But there are other items, perhaps less commonly encountered, that we miss only when we think about it. And of course Joni Mitchell's old lyric, "...you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone" certainly applies. Lately I've been thinking about things I miss during these months of emergency.
One of my favorite places here is the Better Homes and Gardens Test Garden, on the western edge of downtown. It's a lovely spot, shady and cool, with the soft music of flowing water. It's only open to the public on Fridays for a brief time--and may have been closed completely during the pandemic. Regardless, I happened upon the watercolor sketches below, from a visit a few years ago and they reminded me of how much I love to visit. A small thing I miss while the world suffers.
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| "Looking North, the Gardens," wc on paper |
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| "Better Homes and Gardens Demo Garden," wc on paper |
An Iowa event that many of us have missed is the State Fair. Although it was cancelled in 2020, for some reason it was held this year, though I did not go. The Fair is an institution here and in some ways one of the most egalitarian gatherings. It brings all classes, all locales, essentially every stratum of society, together. It's a celebration of the bedrock of the state and region and it's likely one of the largest (certainly the most famous) in the country. Perhaps by next year the corona virus will have burned through and disappeared. I will go then.
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| "On the Grand Concourse, Iowa State Fair," wc on paper |
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| "The Tram, Iowa State Fair," wc on paper |
The return to normal is slow, impeded by many uncertainties and by our own human frailty. We can only follow the science and live through it.
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