Ordinary Times

As the days of summer come and go, I am still confused by what day it is. Even all these weeks after the daily and weekly confusion of the spring quarantine, each day I have to stop and think. “Is it Monday? Yep, I believe it is Monday. Unless it happens to Wednesday.”

Yesterday I sat down and planned the summer of 2020 for the second time, now halfway into the first month of summer. Originally, I was on sabbatical this summer. I was watching one of my sons play tons of baseball. I was listening to the legendary Danny Gladden tell me each play of my favorite team, the Minnesota Twins. My boys and I were taking a trip to Boston to watch the Red Sox beat the pants off the Yankees. My husband and I were excited to take a kid-less mini-vacation and I would not attend a single meeting.

But these are not “ordinary times,” as my colleague preached yesterday. In the church, we call these months of the season of Pentecost “Ordinary Times”, but these days feel far from “ordinary”.

Wondering whether to wear a mask, whether to eat in a restaurant, with whom and where my kids can play, whether we have enough hand sanitizer, and how easy it would be to let this not-so-ordinary summer slip away while I’m wondering through those questions.

Don’t you wonder how kids will look back and remember this not-so-ordinary time? What will they remember? What words will describe these days? What stories will stick with them? Will they read any of the books people will write about these extraordinary days? Or will they be determined never to remember them because of how restricted they were for so long?

As I planned the summer of 2020 for the second time, there are now ordinary plans penciled in, although they all feel tentative, maybe precarious. Bible Camp. Not as many baseball games, but still baseball games. Doctor appointments. Camping.

Whether these plans actually happen, or whether I sit down and plan the summer of 2020 for a third time, whether the days actually do feel ordinary or not-so-ordinary, maybe I will at least remember what day it is. And that is enough.