Traveling to Vietnam today thru Wednesday, and I gotta say I really appreciate being able to see people's faces again. It's got this element of humanity I didn't think I would miss until everything went down two years ago.
Sure there are a few holdouts who can't seem to grasp that both germs and viruses have been ubiquitous since the dawn of time, and so they have a mask for "protection" or some reason or another.
I even saw someone with a mask and a face shield at the gate in Philly. Good thing she's got that on, heaven forbid she should make a personal connection with another human being.
Truth be told, people are a little bit happier these days. The flight attendants are no longer low-level enforcers of inane regulations they detest (thinking the best of my fellow man here), and you can actually understand the people handing you your boarding passes without leaning in to a distance that far exceeds anyone's normal standards of comfort.
Even the TSA guys and gals seem to have a bit of pep in their step. Their role in society is still utterly useless, but still it's good to see.
I remember traveling from Hanoi to the U.S. in July 2020. The stopover in Tokyo was surreal. Completely empty. All the shops were closed. It was truly apocalyptic. I got a decent practice session on my cornet in the empty terminal.
Then traveling back to Hanoi in January 2021, and the infamous scene where I was threatened to be deported to a Vietnamese army camp because I stepped out of my hotel room to get some exercise in the hallway.
Even traveling back through Tokyo as recently as this past March was a bit odd. Signs of life, but nothing like the vibrant hub it is known to be. I have yet to see the Narita airport at anything close to full functionality.
Now two months later, it's like a different world. One judge in Florida signs a sheet of paper, and all of a sudden life resumes close to normal capacity.
In case you haven't noticed, I'm not a fan of mask mandates and lockdowns. History will show they did far more harm than any good they could have done. We're social creatures and for a good while, we had that essential element of our existence either taken away or severely curtailed. (Even walking into the Walmart in Virginia Beach felt like walking into an army camp.)
I'll take connection with others over the risk of getting a virus any day. What kind of life is it if you're not allowed to commune with other people in the name of public health? No kind of life I want to live.
Community is one of the pillars of our business, JNS Media, and Sana and I have been busy recording podcasts on it and the other four. It's not quite finished yet, but you can hear what we've put out on the topic thus far: https://jnshub.com/crave
