So it's pow-wow season -- or at least it's supposed to be. They, like everything else, have been cancelled.
Except literally thousands of people who would normally attend them have flooded into a group online to share videos of themselves dancing -- dancing in full regalia in their living rooms, their basements, their yards, the local park, a parking lot, a trail they hiked, everywhere. It's beautiful and moving and I have been watching every day, often for several hours with the videos up in the background while I'm working.
Specials -- aka competitions -- are still being held and today was the "Tiny Tot Special", for children six and under.
Today was also, quite unexpectedly, a really hard day. But then I got to spend my evening after work methodically going through every one of those videos tagged for the kids' special, liking each one, and leaving comments like "Wow, Branson! That's some fancy footwork. Thank you for sharing your dancing with us!" for the kids who got the least upvotes and replies.
I'm really glad I just got to say a bunch of nice things to a bunch of little kids who are probably really scared and confused right now and have their moms and dads tell me how excited their kids got when they read them everything people were saying.
That's probably weird, but it made today a whole lot better.