I’m sure you’ve all noticed the world has gone mad. A word that wasn’t even in our vocabulary a year ago is now one of the auto options on my phone when I start typing coro–
On our before-bed-dog-walk I was discussing it with my husband, who’s life and news feeds seem completely devoid of the terror news that populate mine. I told him this might be the actual beginning of the actual end and that… well, that sucks.
I asked him “if the end was coming, what did he regret or wish he’d done that he won’t get to do once the world devolves into anarchical virus chaos?”
He said he didn’t really have regrets for the past as much as regrets for the future. He regretted we wouldn’t be able to live out the lives we had been planning for ourselves and do all the things we’d been hoping to do.
I thought this was a really nice sentiment. I, on the other hand, had a great number of regrets. Here are some that I listed for him:
I regret all the rock climbing I didn’t do.
I regret that I never learned to drive a motorcycle.
I regret that one time I didn’t go parasailing.
I regret not eating more sushi.
I regret not going to see the statue of David when I was in Florence, Italy.
I regret that I will never get to eat avocado gelato from that place in London you see on the BringMe videos.
I regret that I never took a cross country road trip.
I regret all the lazy weekend mornings I didn’t stay in bed because “I had stuff to get done”
I guess what I regret most is that even with all this madness, I keep thinking we have more time. More time to see and do things, time to go back, time to spend with people we care about. Time to live and have adventures. More time to change. But none of that is really guaranteed, not just because of coronavirus which may or may not be as bad as it seems, but because no amount of time is ever guaranteed. More Time is a lie we tell ourselves, even when things are looking bleak.
So this past weekend I stayed in bed late, and then risked my life to go to the grocery store and buy avocados in order to make avocado ice cream. When I set out to find more adventures I didn’t realize that the adventure would be things like braving public spaces. I bought out the entire supply of toilet paper while I was there (just kidding! There wasn’t any toilet paper.) The avocados are too unripe to do anything with them, so avocado gelato will have to wait, I only hope there will be more time.
Action items for you:
Hunker down. If you don’t have to go out and be around people, don’t. Be mindful that if you’re not at risk of serious illness and death yourself, there are people around you that are. No, I don’t think this is the apocalypse but I do think that no matter what the actual, eventual seriousness of COVID-19 is, it will fundamentally change how we do things around this world. Be ready for that change, and do your part not to suck.
If you want to do what I did:
This is the avocado ice cream I plan to make if my avocados ever ripen:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/avocado-ice-cream-recipe-1945087
And this is our ice cream maker. It’s super simple to use, albeit slightly more complicated than just going to the store and buying a container of ice cream.
UPDATE: Here is the result of my avocado gelato!