Be disappointed it hasn’t been a normal spring for getting around to your favorite places to eat, shop and recreate, from Wiscasset Community Center and Boothbay Region YMCA, to the made-over Wiscasset downtown ready to really be tried out, and everything that is always spectacular about a day spent in Boothbay Harbor.

And how many of us on and off the peninsula were saddened but not surprised last week at word Maine State Music Theater will be dark this summer? Also last week, much more impactful, sad and sobering news came, as Edgecomb officials shared word Steve Fenton died from complications of the virus; and it came out in an Alna selectmen’s Zoom meeting that a local was quarantining due to exposure.

Be financially scared, rightly so, for the uncertainty you may be having due to shutdowns, slowdowns and tanked stocks. No stimulus check yet? I’m no longer holding my breath for mine. I am among the relative few who have continued to file paper returns and let refunds, if any, come to their post office box. I read one projection I would get my stimulus check in October. Well, as I always say, I’ll need it then, too. And I’ll start filing electronically.

Be frustrated at having to wear masks and gloves when you do venture out in public, and how the masks fog up your glasses, if you happen to wear them.

But don’t be sorry.

Don’t second guess safe; don’t give in to the pull of how things were when life was normal. Normal, for now, is gone; either a mirage, or irresponsibility, if you or others are ignoring, or considering ignoring, the safeguards. We all hope the normal we all grew up in and have grown old in, the freedom of it, will be restored, when the threat has passed, seasonally, at least. But in the meantime, let’s deal with the day to day, day by day, and not be part of the reason the virus is still here. Don’t give it what it needs: Our being around one another.

Apologies to the Barbra Streisand hit “People” from “Funny Girl,” but this year, people who need people are not the luckiest people in the world.

Want normal again? Go about it the right way, the slow way, the common sense way, the maybe not right now for a lot of things way. And listen to the scientists.

Week’s positive parting thought: This used to be the easiest part of each week’s editorial. This spring, it has become the hardest. The region has plenty of positives every week, from the mask-making to community efforts on food and more as the crisis continues. It’s just that, after 50,000 U.S. deaths and counting and so many more worldwide, I’m reluctant to call any of the good things happening a silver lining. So while we continue to thank the responders, other essential workers and volunteers, rightly so, for all they are doing, let’s also give sufficient pause for the lives the virus has ended. 

I’m temporarily suspending the positive parting thought and look forward to when it naturally works again. I hope that is this year.