Living through the transition to a new normal
Has much of humanity been COVID-19 scarred without having contracted the virus? Like me, are you becoming edgy and short-fused these days?
Hospitality is the career I chose and genuinely love, and at this point in my early 70s, I cannot redefine who I am, nor do I want to. So, I don’t have a choice but to stay the course.
Happily, one of the things that rejuvenates me is our guests at the Inn on the Alameda, many whom I have not met before. I want them to enjoy the inn’s many open-air patios and balconies, which provide a convenient setting for social distancing and getting to know our guests on a personal level. We talk about our dogs. I ask them about their stay, if they need anything special, thank them for coming.
It is a bit cumbersome with masks and social distancing, but this is part of what a small, family-operated property has to do — personally engage at every level. Yet I miss everything that is the old normal, don’t you?
I pray the Plexiglas goes into storage and stays there forever. I miss the buffet line of our hot breakfasts and casual afternoon wine and cheese socials. Our challenge is to let our warmth as hoteliers come through the new barriers with grace and for the staff to follow all the safety guidelines to assure a welcoming environment.
Hopefully, we can all go down to the burning of Zozobra next year and recapture the comforting companionship celebrating an end to the year’s sorrows. This year’s televised program showed in detail the making of the giant puppet, his transport to Fort Marcy park, the erecting of the gloomy white man and the excitement of the fire dancers.
It was a good substitute to the real deal, but like attending a Super Bowl versus watching it on TV, attending is the real deal. The human energy created at such events cannot be replaced by televised participation.
At the inn, we maintain as much normalcy as possible, and our staff has risen to the challenge of being genuine, warm and welcoming. Maybe we should all start each day with those feelings foremost on our minds and in our hearts.
Yes, the new normal can be exciting here and there, often when least expected, but it is our human nature to long for the comfort of things from our pasts. And since each of us know we cannot see the future with a large degree of clarity, we find it next to impossible to let the old normal pass into history without a fight.
Now time seems to pass so quickly that we as humans can actually see the monumental changes occurring almost daily. It is imperative we allow the positive side of the human drama to be paramount in our minds and guide our lives into the light and keep our backs to the darkness. This has been the wonder of human evolution, and this virus cannot get the best of whom we have evolved to be.