Reading and Swimming My Way Through the 2020 Pandemic
Crystal Lake/ Photo by Brock Lady
Story By Nancy Greene
2020. A year of the unexpected. The year of the pandemic. Staying home, away from the usual get togethers with friends and family, cultural events, and
crowds on the street. During this crazy year, I was granted time, quiet, and space. Keeping connected in new ways. Opening my mind to new experiences. In this year of the pandemic, I found new inspiration and peace of mind through reading, swimming, and nature. I was planning on winding down my work as a legal recruiter in 2020. Retiring. A scary prospect. Planning to finally spend an entire summer in my beloved house in North Branch. When the pandemic hit New York City in March, so heavily that a citywide lockdown was threatening to become a real possibility, my husband and I headed upstate along with so many others. For years I had fantasized about spending the first six months of my retirement reading. I imagined myself continuing a work-like schedule, but instead of going to my office, I would head to my living room or a library or a cafe, and read. Reading has always been a big part of my life. I have so many memories of my mother and I going to the library in Maryland where I grew up and the bookmobile stopping on my suburban corner. Seeing all the volumes of Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder lined up on the shelves of the school library. Reading to my son every night from infancy through volume four of Harry Potter. No surprise that I have found the libraries in Jeffersonville and Callicoon to be quiet havens, and digital havens during the pandemic. For almost 20 years I have been in the same book club. While the monthly zoom meetings are not nearly as satisfying as meeting in our respective homes, we have tried to keep it going. Right now we are reading Infinite Home by Kathleen Alcott. I had never heard of this book before, but that is one of the benefits of the book club. This year being this year, I discovered a new way to read a book. I call it the mini-book club. A one on one book club. I currently have three minis going, and each one offers me a unique reading experience. First, my Israeli husband and I decided to pick an Israeli novel that we both wanted to read. He reads it in Hebrew; I read it in English. Through my husband, I get a perspective that I would never be able to grasp on my own. We have discussions spanning socio-cultural-political realms that we would ordinarily not have. We just finished the classic, My Michael by Amos Oz, and earlier in the summer read the more recent, Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshan. One day early in the summer my neighbor in North Branch, Gordon, suggested we read War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy together. What? It’s 1200 pages and... but we Jeffersonville Journal ‑ 40
