I used to be afraid of heights, including on the teeter-totter. Being really high up, enough so you could fall, was not fun. It was something to get through.

Being back on the ground was a relief, only to be raised into the air again, into the fear and risk. With the pandemic flowing forward again with renewed international restrictions as the variant comes to the fore, and occasional new reports of COVID-19 cases on the Midcoast, we are all on the teeter totter. How high and how long will the pandemic suspend us before we land for the hopefully last time and can walk away?

I am not sure when my fear of heights passed. Maybe I got tall enough for the teeter totter and other tall things to not be so much bigger than I was. We are bigger than the pandemic and we have to believe that someday it will be something our generations remember, but no longer face, at least not at the heights it still has parts of the country and the world in.

Week’s parting observation: The planned athletic partnership Joseph Charpentier reports on this week between Boothbay Region and Wiscasset is good thinking. Thanks to both for continuing to try this, and good luck.