All this time at home has led to some existential discussions amongst our family. We keep talking about everything --- from our grandparents’ generation that grew up during World War II to 9/11 that we lived through while I was in high school.
Times are tough now—but most people living have no idea what war time even meant and the teenagers of today were barely alive at 9/11. So that means there are all these folks that haven’t had to live through hardship or even try to wrap their heads around it nonetheless.
We’ve been discussing the different reactions to the coronavirus amongst the generations. The main feeling, I’m gathering, is that many millennials aren’t taking this seriously enough (evidence of bars being packed in Florida and people flying off for vacations) and then many baby boomers, who are actually informed, are defiantly ignoring the warnings to stay home by going about their business just because it’s what they’ve always done.
Maybe people aren’t taking this seriously for a number of reasons. For the boomers, in their minds, they’ve survived worse. They lived through Vietnam, had WWII parents who lamented about tough times and many came from immigrant families who often kept strict households. The millennials, on the other hand, have lived through none of it. The younger part of the generation has relied heavily on the internet for most of their lives.
Now here we are. We’re being asked to hunker down, slow down our lives and wait something out. For most of us, that seems to be a fate worse than death, but I assure you, it’s not. That egg sandwich you get every morning at the deli, it’s not worth it. That pool party in Miami, it’s not worth it. Even that family event or celebration you were planning, it’s not worth it. (And trust me, we know. We cancelled our daughter’s christening that was scheduled for the end of the month and it broke my heart).
These meaning-of-life discussions are all happening around my daughter, while we feed her or play with her. Each and every time she smiles, we laugh and find joy in the small things. That reminder seems crucial now more than ever.
Technically, Giuliana falls into the ‘Gen Alpha’ generation that spans children born between 2013-2025. While we will not know for some time what will ultimately define this generation, I can’t help but wonder what the impact of the coronavirus will be?
Undoubtedly the older kids, those 5 and above will vividly remember this time and I’m sure we will be telling Giuliana stories about it for years to come. Heck, her mother is blogging about it at this very moment and we keep a daily video log for her to look back upon when she’s older-it’ll be hard for her to forget.
Perhaps Generation Survivalist may be thrown out as an apropos nickname?
I didn’t get around to posting my blog post yesterday because we did a house-wide inventory. We are planning to stay here for several months if we need to. While this is a scary thought for most people, being prepared helps us ease our worries and anxiety as a family.
After all, say we over-prepare, what’s the downside to that? Say we have a lot of shelf stable goods in our pantry or we’ve ordered a lot of cleaning products for the house (don’t worry—we aren’t toilet paper hoarders!). We do, after all, have a growing child so I’m sure everything we’ve bought will be put to good use throughout the year. In the event we need it to last us for a few months, then so be it.
I have never liked waste and if you ask my husband, I can whip up a meal from random ingredients we have in our pantry and fridge in record time. This skill is coming in handy during this hard time as a home cooked meal that’s delicious is more important than ever to boost culinary morale. So, I’ve taken stock of what we have: what’s fresh, what’s frozen, what fresh stuff we can freeze and what items we should keep in reserve for more dire situations where we might need completely shelf stable items.
After all of that, I think through what we have and I make meals, keeping in mind the amount of leftovers we would have per meal and when/how we could eat or repurpose them later if necessary. Now, I know most people don’t have the time for this. Luckily, I am still on maternity leave and I have help from my parents to watch Giuliana as I whip up my salmon cakes with quinoa and spinach for dinner.
But cooking has also been a form of meditation for me over the years and something, somewhere, in between this postpartum period and the global pandemic of the coronavirus, I’m being called to the kitchen more now than ever before.
I plan to make the most of this time in the kitchen cooking for my family. It’ll help keep my mind at ease and our hearts and tummies full, and someday, we will tell Giuliana all that we did in our warm kitchen during a scary, uncertain time.
Phil’s: No Cocktail, Just Tequila
After the inventory planning, the tai chi session and the hustle dance lesson, Phil dipped into our really good tequila… Clase Azul Tequila. This is not a tequila you put in a margarita or mixed drink. Treat it the same way you would a whisky or scotch. Pour a snort at room temperature (of if you’re my mother, you’re bound to drop an ice cube in it) and sip slowly.