sort of normal

[lauradi7dw]

For fifteen summers, I think, my early Saturday mornings have been spent in Seven Hills park in Davis Square, for Tai Chi classes (in practice, many of the summer classes have been bagua spear, but same folks). Since March, all the classes offered by Davis Square Martial Arts have been on Zoom, but starting today, some of them are in the park. There is a permit from the city, with specifications. This morning there were spaces marked out on the grass with little cones, we all arrived wearing masks, and there was sanitizer. Everybody was working hard to comply, so it felt pleasant rather than scary to me. The instructor was fighting the inclination to walk over to people to give personalized corrections (although he's been doing an amazing job of doing it when we're just tiny squares on a screen). He was frustrated about not always being heard, but I don't think he can blame it on the mask - there was a crane hoisting dumpster stuff up and down from the roof on the Harvard Vanguard building, for the whole time we were there. I didn't walk over to see what the destruction was about. I drove there and left directly after class, so I don't know what the rest of Davis Square looks like after four months.
It was nice to see people I know whom I haven't seen in months, and to see in person someone I've only met in the zoom gallery view.