August 16 - Bubbles

When our children were young they would sometimes play with soap bubbles. It was an innocent childhood game. We would all sit on the back step and dip a little wire ring into a soapy container. Then, holding the ring up, we would blow through it creating transparent bubbles that floated away on wafts of air. Big bubbles, little bubbles would all drift away towards the back fence.

These days it is the adults who are creating bubbles – not the haphazard bubbles of childhood games but bubbles of people. These are usually created very specifically as a small group of friends or family. The idea is that we should be limiting our contact with people who are outside of the bubble.

Lyle and I are part of three separate bubbles. One small sphere contains a group of friends with whom we indulge in outdoor coffee get togethers.  We are also in a bubble with our daughter and her family and in another bubble with our son and his family. Beyond this, we keep our social distance from other people.

I’m not sure just who is protecting who by this strange arrangement. I think that our children feel that they are protecting us, and by not associating with other people, Lyle and I in turn feel that we are protecting them.

I do feel somewhat isolated in the bubbles of relationships that we have created but at the same time, there is a feeling of intimacy. If the truth were to be told, I much prefer the childhood game of blowing out soapy bubbles in the back yard, but in this crazy uncertain time of COVID, I will have to be satisfied with this new game of bubble creation.