All my life I have been a very social person. In school I was always being reprimanded for talking too much. I was voted the most talkative guy in my high school graduating class. As Leah says repeatedly, I have never met a stranger. During my career, having fun was a top priority. The biggest complaint about me as a high school sports official is that I socialize too much with the players.
The lack of socializing is what makes this pandemic so difficult for me. During the summer, I was OK because I could golf, bike ride and safely talk to people in an outdoor setting. I could even have a beer with people. My spirits were good. Then winter came and it was me and Leah and my kids and grand children. No hot tubbing with the guys. No going out to dinner with other people, No going to sporting events. My only socializing is at the gym where I arrive at 6:30 in the morning so I can stay away from crowds of people to stay safe.
It really hit me in the last two days when I was able to golf with a friend on Tuesday and bike ride and have coffee at an outdoor cafe today with another couple from Petoskey. On our bike ride I got to say “how are you doing?” to lots of people, all of whom said something back. We were socializing and our spirits were lifted. It then dawned on me that it is the socializing that I miss so much.
It also got me thinking. If the pandemic can have a major negative impact on my spirits from the lack of socializing, what is happening with those who suffer from depression, anxiety and other issues during ths pandemic? I got my answer in a hurry when I got home from our bike ride.
A good friend sent me an article by NPR about the problems with youth suicide in a Nevada school district due to the lack of socializing for high school students during the pandemic. Then the Detroit Free Press published an artilce today about a new digital screening tool for use in emergency rooms that could better detect youth suicides according to Michigan Medicine. The tool — named CASSY, short for Computerized Adaptive Screen for Suicidal Youth — is one of the latest efforts to address youth suicide, which is an increasing concern during the pandemic. “Too many young people are dying by suicide and many at high risk go completely unrecognized and untreated,” the study’s lead author, Cheryl King, said. “About half of the youth who die by suicide have never received any mental health services.”
I don’t have the answers to a very complicated question about safely opening our schools and allowing our students to participate safely in sports and other extra-curricular activities. However, I do know that if socializing is so important to me at my age, I hate to think about how I would have reacted to missing out on the social part of high school and college fifty years ago..
As our leaders evaluate options about opening schools, I hope they consider the importance the social aspects of attending school has on the students, the teachers and the staff.
Stay safe. Social distance. Wear your mask. Wash your hands regularly. Schedule your vaccine.
Quote of the Day: “I always looked at the Lions, to me, I never thought of them as being a tough team, I just never have. Dan Campbell does give them a unique personality. He is going to sit there and talk about a culture that’s based on being tough, biting off kneecaps on the way getting back up. He’s going to go down fighting, that’s kind of who he is…… There’s going to be a degree of toughness that they’re going to play with, they’re going to have to practice with, and that will be their approach.” Former Pittsburg Steeler Head Coach Bill Cowher.
Orchid of the Day: The authors of the new study, published in JAMA Neurology that found that 72 percent of the concussions they reviewed over five college football seasons happened during practice. And although preseason training accounted for about one-fifth of the time the researchers studied, they found that nearly half of the concussions occurred during that period. It is time for the NCAA to wake up and follow the same practice guidlines used in the NFL which limit the amount of contact practice during the week and preseason.
Onion of the Day: All those line skippers who are jumping to the head of the line when they are not qualified to receive the vaccine, especially Lansing Mayor Andy Shor and Council President Peter Spadafore for jumping the line and getting vaccines they knew they weren’t eligible to receive but did it anyway. To blame it on an unnamed person at Sparrow Hospital is really low.