I remember how sad I was when the piano store closed. The closure represented the end of an era where playing the piano was a normal, important part of American childhood.

If it is any solace, the pre-Covid world went hand in hand with cannibalistic Progress. Covid was a way of disguising the failure of Progress as the wheels fell off the jalopy. The reason all the "fancy" people are flipping their lids over the imaginary dangers of Covid is that they cannot acknowledge the end of the Progress narrative, let alone begin to cope with it. There won't be a return to hassle-free cross-continental travel, but in this Great Change comes the death of the pointless strip mall that is half-vacant while the new one is being built next door on the last open patch of prairie. One of these things must die for the other to die and the Corona freakout is part of the package.