"In many other places, too...the apocalypse appeared to have arrived and yet it was not apocalyptic, which is to say that while the changes were jarring they were not the end, and life went on, and people found things to do and ways to be and people to be with, and plausible desirable futures began to emerge, unimaginable previously...and the result was something not unlike relief." (Mohsin Hamid, Exit West [2017], p. 217)
The pandemic is not over, but spring has arrived, and life goes on, and some desirable futures appear more visible now than in 2020, even though so many people, perhaps most of us, merely want to return to the way things were Before. If it would bring back the dead, I might even think that was a good idea.
