Get Ready To Dance, Alberta

We’re loosening pandemic restrictions in Alberta. It’s a necessary step, but one that is fraught with risk.

We can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind
Cause your friends don’t dance and if they don’t dance
Well they’re no friends of mine

Safety Dance, Men Without Hats

A blustery west wind swept down from the Rockies in the early hours of Friday morning, shaking and rattling my house as I tossed and turned in my bed.

I climbed blearily into my trusty Suburban later that morning and headed to Costco to stock up on groceries. The speed limit sign on the road leading out of my neighbourhood caught my attention: the limit had morphed from 60 to 9 overnight, underlined by unreadable Russian.

There was a simple explanation, of course: the overnight gale had knocked the sign askew. It hung upside down, swaying slightly in the morning breeze.

I resisted the impulse to hit the brakes and carried on my way.

The dislodged sign struck me as an apt metaphor for the impact of the COVID pandemic: our world has been flipped upside down; the lockdown has slowed the pace of life to a crawl; and the way forward, it seems, is…