Celebrate Separately

No matter where you are, there are celebrations in this part of the year that normally involve getting together with other people. Diwali. Thanksgiving. Hanukkah. Christmas. This list could go on, but you get the idea.

People are accustomed to getting together with other people they care about and have some type of celebration.

This year, unless you live somewhere that has done remarkably well at stamping out the pandemic (say, New Zealand), don’t. Simply don’t. Show your love for other people by not going anywhere near them. The best gift you can offer is denying the virus any opportunity to use you and your loved ones to spread itself.

Emotional presence and physical presence are not entwined. Coming from a family with two generations of sea captains, with godparents from seafarers’ households too, I grew up with this lesson. If everyone could be at the table for Thanksgiving or Christmas, that was a bonus. If someone could come home from the ship a few weeks earlier or later, we could celebrate a holiday twice.

Most often, someone would be missing from the holiday dinner table. As we grew up, sometimes one or more of us kids couldn’t be there. It wasn’t a tragedy. It didn’t mean anyone was any less loved or any less emotionally present.

This is how we should all be approaching holidays now. We are all away, staying in touch by letter and telephone (and email and video link, marvels my family would have greatly appreciated). We aren’t doing it to earn our pay. This is a bit more like when my father and grandfather were at sea carrying supplies past U-boats to Britain during World War II. We are doing it so that when vaccines are available and in widespread use, and the pandemic is fading, we can gather again for a celebration and have no needlessly empty chairs.

Let’s show people we love how much we love them by celebrating, this year, safely distant.