{"id":2456598,"date":"2020-04-01T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/love-in-the-time-of-covid-19\/"},"modified":"2020-04-01T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T14:00:00","slug":"love-in-the-time-of-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/love-in-the-time-of-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Love in the time of Covid-19"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"428\" height=\"620\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/04\/meredith-atd-010318.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/04\/meredith-atd-010318.jpg 428w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/04\/meredith-atd-010318-207x300.jpg 207w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 428px) 100vw, 428px\"><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">If you had asked me before meeting my husband, Rick, more than 16 years ago about the qualities I fancied in a life partner, my response would have been flowery and long-winded with a bullet-pointed list of attributes including kind eyes, a keen intellectual curiosity and salty sense of humor. If I were asked the same question today, Coronavirus Detention Day No. 20, my answer would be much more basic: someone you can tolerate being stuck with.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">I remember waking up one morning a few weeks before our 2006 wedding and announcing that I had no second thoughts about walking down the aisle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cOh, great,\u201d Rick said, half-asleep. \u201cWait, was there a question before?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cNo,\u201d I replied. \u201cI didn\u2019t know if anyone is ever 100 percent certain they\u2019re marrying the right person. I am just telling you that I am sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/at-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/donate\/?utm_source=website&amp;utm_medium=news%20article&amp;utm_campaign=donation\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Except of course I couldn\u2019t have really divined it back then. Maybe I had a hunch or a good feeling. Let\u2019s say I liked my chances. Now, though, I can proclaim with much certainty exactly how well I chose. Because it\u2019s occurred to me over these past 480 hours that the thing we never really think to hope for when committing to another person for life is that it won\u2019t end up feeling like a life sentence. If you\u2019re going to cook for someone, it helps if you don\u2019t also want to poison them. I could see how the temptation, and opportunity, would otherwise be great.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">I wouldn\u2019t characterize our situation as lucky because the work we\u2019ve put into our relationship over the years is considerable. Rick has long since grown accustomed to me leaving no emotion unexpressed. Over time I have reluctantly accepted that he is physically incapable of sighing inaudibly (or even simply waiting until I\u2019m out of earshot).<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Yet it is precisely the largely unsexy \u2014 and incessant \u2014 minutiae of matrimony, children, family life, health, money and a lasting vow to evolve together that have brought us to this point, which is the same one that\u2019s allowing us to quietly relish so much togetherness, forced or otherwise (other than the time when I may or may not have hurled a package of food coloring in his direction while unleashing a string of F-bombs, but that was way back in mid March).<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">For better or worse we\u2019ve had ample practice sitting together in an uncomfortable stew of precarious physical well-being, financial vulnerability, psychological strife and other unspecified anxiety. While actual plagues may be new to us, we are adept at adapting and have grown accustomed to hunkering down and counting our blessings, especially our corona-free children and parents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">At the same time, my grateful heart breaks thinking about those who have fallen ill, have been thrust into unemployment, those who are alone, and those who are partnered yet are still lonely or unsafe in their own space. The uncertainty of the virus is a terrifying contagion unto itself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">It seems as if we take mostly stock of what matters on our best and worst days only \u2014 that is, unless a whole bunch of bad days are strung together with no end in sight, in which case you also have time to take stock of the toilet paper and bleach spray (if you are lucky enough to find some, that is). There wasn\u2019t a way to prepare for this pandemic (you know, unless you are the president) or to know how to navigate it from one day to the next, yet there\u2019s still deep comfort in knowing that however it plays out, I\u2019ll be weathering it with my person. It may not have been an item on our wedding registry, but it\u2019s the gift I\u2019ve carried with me for 14 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Sometimes it can feel impossible to identify or seek out joy in tiny moments. At other times, when tiny moments are all there is to be found, maybe you\u2019ll see it\u2019s all you really need.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\">More at MeredithCarroll.com and on Twitter @MCCarroll.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/opinion\/love-in-the-time-of-covid-19\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you had asked me before meeting my husband, Rick, more than 16 years ago about the qualities I fancied in a life partner, my response would have been flowery and long-winded with a bullet-pointed list of attributes including kind eyes, a keen intellectual curiosity and salty sense of humor. If I were asked the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2456598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 06:41:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}