Almost every week, the very last thing I write for the Courier is this editorial, and almost every week, I'm sitting here staring at the empty space between html tags scratching my head and trying to come up with a topic. What can I write about that I haven't already said, that isn't political, that stays within the bounds of appropriate commentary?

I often have this problem with writing sermons--at a time when I need to be inspiring, uplifting and and optimistic, multiple crises or just bad news will come crashing into my life. I'm working with HEAL Winchendon, which is about as energized and positive a group of unquenchable visionaries you could hope for--and I often feel like Eeyore by comparison (or at best, Owl).

Governor Baker is immune to discouragement, it seems. He's marching ahead with opening up the state, while his constituents are considerably more conflicted. As a publisher who has been working hard to keep their community informed for more than a year, I've found the state's "COVID Stats Tango" to be infuriating. The more the Governor wants things to move forward, the more the COVID information on the state's website is changed, delayed, rearranged and just plain obfuscated. To find this week's updates, I ended up downloading two humungous Excel files of "raw data." The Governor's weekly press briefings are full of huge numbers rattled off at high speed and boasting about how many Massachusetts residents have been vaccinated.

As things open up, we're going to be cautiously testing the waters, trying out things and hoping the results aren't disastrous--that a wedding reception won't become a super-spreader event, that a sports event or conference won't start a new outbreak of some new virus. So far, schools returning to in-person classes seems to be working out okay. Winchendon isn't doing too well at the moment--we're the only "red" town for COVID rates in north Central Massachusetts and way behind the rest of the state on vaccination rates. But we'd be doing a lot better if so many Toy Towners didn't wear their masks down on their chins. (Get used to the masks, because those are going to be with us for a long time. And personally, I found it refreshing to have no 'flu season at all--zip, zero, none--this winter thanks to everyone wearing masks and washing their hands all the time.)

Winchendon is going through a lot of changes, even without COVID-19. It may be that what we've all endured this past year will enable us to make real transformations in our community. Perhaps we'll finally be re-imagining and re-designing what schools should be like, what jobs and working and commerce should be like, what social services should be like, what kind of infrastructure and networks we really need. Perhaps we'll find ways to be more self-sufficient as a community while acknowledging our connections to the rest of the world and the planet. Sometimes it takes profound loss to make us appreciate what really matters.

It's hard. There's a lot of fear, and a lot of resistance to accepting what is factual and true. We're all tired, and we're all wondering what lies ahead. But spring is coming; it's almost May. You're going to be hearing from HEAL Winchendon, and we want to hear from you. "Clyde's Corner" in the Courier is getting busier and busier with events. Someday, we'll be telling the kids, "back in 2020, there was this pandemic, and for a whole year..."

And they probably won't believe us! That's how you know you lived through really "interesting" times.

Inanna Arthen