I want normal back.

I am suffering from COVID-19 fatigue. I am fed up with a country in chaos.

I hate that this damn virus is so inescapable. I understand why so many of my fellow Kansans are ready to just say “what will be, will be” and plunge ahead. I also understand that their lack of fortitude is why were are seeing 1,000 new cases a day in Kansas, why our total cases and deaths are marching upward at an alarming rate, and why this disease is going to be a threat as far into the future as we can imagine.

Denial across the country is why we are still seeing 40,000 new cases a day in America and why almost 1,000 people a day are dying — people of all ages and occupations.

In most years, fall is my favorite season. I love the changing colors of the trees, the sense of completion that comes with harvest and the glowing light of an autumn twilight.

For most of my life, I’ve also loved presidential elections for the elevation they bring to conversations about the ideals of our amazing country and the sense of possibility that emerges from competing ideas on how to move us forward.

This year is an exception to that. The conversation is anything but elevating, and there is almost no discussion of ideas or plans for the future.

Instead, we have a constant stream of negativity and dishonesty and even talk of eschewing the peaceful transfer of power that is the hallmark of our government. I’ll just be glad to have it over, even as I know that it won’t really end as long as there are amplifying voices in the non-stop 24-hour news cycle and an insatiable appetite for outrage.

I have a friend who earnestly sent me a link to a QAnon video, telling me that we all need to unite and stop the Hollywood celebrities from ruling the country and drinking the blood of small children. This is a person that I once considered level-headed and sensible. What is happening to us? Why on earth do people become convinced that such nonsense is truth?

I just want it to end. I want normal back. I want the corn or soybean yield contests to be the biggest race out there. I want the biggest thing I worry about my grandkids catching is the school bus. I want teenagers to be excited about school play performances, winning the homecoming game and getting invited to the movies by a special crush.

Go away COVID. Go away divisive, hateful politics. Just. Go. Away.