A Serpentine Landscape

I have been thinking this week about isolation.

After several weeks of nagging, I convinced my friend Eleanor to go see a movie with me, Coyote vs. ACME (which is very good, and you should definitely see it). Eleanor, who is in her eighties, lives with her partner Patrick and has been mentioning that she has not been getting out at all. I used to meet her every week for coffee along with a couple of other friends, lydamorehouse and naomikritzer. But we switched to Zoom during the pandemic, and somehow, when the pandemic ended, we never switched back to in-person meetings. It's partly because it's a hassle for Eleanor to get to the coffee shop we met at every week, because she doesn't drive, and partly--I dunno. We just never started again. So going to a movie with her felt like a surprisingly big deal.

I have been thinking about that all week. Going out to a movie with someone is a big deal.

Meeting someone for coffee or dinner or a visit to the theater or a restaurant is a big deal.

Perhaps I have been thinking about it lately because Eleanor has been fretting about her isolation a bit. Perhaps it's that memories of the pandemic are coming back because I just recently had my vaccine shot and people are masking more in public.

I live alone. As I've said before, I'm not meant to live alone. But I think that, since the pandemic, social isolation for me--for everyone--has gotten worse, and society has never quite switched back.

I remember a Steve Sack cartoon that came when America shut down that has haunted me ever since: everyone stuck alone on their own little islands. I'm a widow, and it seemed even worse for me. Everyone in my family was isolating WITH someone. Even my mother, who is also a widow, lived in a community where she could see people, where someone checked in with her every day.

I ran across this article this week, "You are no longer invited for dinner," which really drove the point home. The share of people who have invited people over to their home has declined 70% since 1975. That is an absolutely astounding number.

My Year of Adventure was an attempt to battle this. But I am still bothered by my isolation. Even doing my Year of Adventure, I never invited anyone over to my home for dinner. Not once. What's wrong with me? (My daughters just don't like eating with me for complicated reasons, and I've accepted that. But still.)

I live alone. I don't like it. I am not depressed about it, exactly.

But I am feeling it and thinking about it more than usual this week.

Image description: A woman stands alone on a rock in the sea, her back partially turned away from the viewer, her hand over her eyes, scanning the horizon.

Isolation



Click on the links to see the 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

It's the time of the year that I pull out a ridiculous costume and head out to the Renaissance Festival, usually accompanied by Fiona. This year, Delia joined us, too.

Unfortunately, my ridiculous costume was more than a tad too tight, and so I was determined to get new threads. First stop was the Felix Needleworthy booth, where I bought a new bodice:

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From there, I went on to buy a new skirt, and Fiona bought a new pirate shirt. Here is a full length picture of her in her costume.



We then went to the new Scoundrelle's Keep booth, where Delia bought new corset panel insets and I bought several new pouches.



I bought a couple new sterling silver rings and a fan holster.

The grounds were wet, which kept both the crowds and dust down a little. I was fascinated by this patch of ground, liking the way that the oak leaves ground into the mud glimmered with hints of gold, and decided to take a picture of it for the background of this week's collage:



I love the Renaissance Festival. I spent more money than I usually do this year, but I don't regret a penny of it.

Image description: Bottom: three women in costume smile. Background: semi-transparent view of mud with oak leaves mixed in. Left: signs for various food stalls, overlaid with a tightrope walker holding a torch. Top right corner: text reading "Minnesota Renaissance Festival" overlaid with an image of a queen and king in court dress.

Ren Fest



(Compare my collage from 2023 on the same subject here.)

Click on the links to see the 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.