Tag Archives: traditions

Be Safe, Be Smart

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Today my youngest daughter leaves the house for 6 weeks. It will be the longest time that my wife and I won’t have a kid in our house since our first daughter was born almost 25 years ago. It really makes me question, ‘Where does the time go?’

On the note of time flying by, I have no memory of when I started this, but for much of their teen and all of their young adult lives, I’ve had a little tradition for when I see my daughters off. Be it for a trip like this or even for a night out. In addition to ‘Love you,’ I always say, ‘Be safe, be smart.’

The response I enjoy hearing is, “Always.”

Four simple words of advice that probably give me more comfort than they give my daughters, but they both receive the advice and respond with polite grace… and at this point in my life, I think they will be living in their houses with their own families and I might still keep this tradition going.

And for anyone out there that needs to hear it, as you head out of the house and onto new adventures, be it a night out or a trip around the world, let me share a little advice: Be safe, be smart!

It’s a little surreal

If you looked ahead at where you would be for 2020, any time in 2019, you were probably wrong. The word pandemic meant nothing to you outside of a dystopian science fiction movie. Yet here we are and I have to say that I slip into these bizarrely off-centre moments that seem quite surreal.

I’m walking on a sidewalk and decide to step onto the road to let someone coming towards me pass. I’m lined up to get into a grocery store as if I’m waiting to see a bank teller. I’m nodding to greet someone I’m meeting for the first time, avoiding a handshake. I’m leaving the room because I feel the urge to sneeze. I’m putting candles on my sister’s cake and wondering if this will be something we do in the future? I pass a children’s indoor playground facility and wonder if it will ever open up again? I push elevator and crosswalk buttons with my elbow, and wonder how long it will be before all public places have verbally operated buttons, and automatic doors?

These are small moments but they remind me of how much things have (and will change since covid-19 has snuck into the fabric of our society around the world… and sometimes it just feels surreal.