b"Matters heart of thematterFeaturing Local People, Places and Thingsthat Matter Since 1990 Navigating PUBLISHER& EDITOR IN CHIEFEllen Donker this Long ASSOCIATEEDITORCheryl SilverSOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER RoadRachael EntineADVERTISING CONSULTANTSRene ConlonH. Leslie GilmanCOPY EDITORSNick HumezTia SwansonCONTRIBUTORSKaty Chapman, Sara Courtney,Rose Bennett Gilbert, Hobbies helpDonny Levit, Chrissy McIntyre,Ilene Moreno, Joy Yagid BY ELLEN DONKERL ately, I have felt like that kid in the back seatability to dream and access free time diminishes. But for me, its also a matter of being stuck in my comfort zone.I tried explaining this to my son, Christian. At 20 years of the car asking, Are we there yet? Oneold, he is the perfect age for trying out new interests. Al-day melts into another and if I didnt have athough hes a busy college student, he still has breaks where job Id have no idea where in the week I was.he can devote large swaths of time to inquiry and, in keep-Social distancing has hemmed me in, keep- ing with his personality, he does it with passion, or perhaps ing me closer to home than Ive ever been. obsession. At least thats what I kid him about. Recently, my friend, Terryl, expressed aDuring his recent school break at home, Christian took thought that had been rattling around in my brain. Shea deep dive into cooking, leaning on a discarded Jacques Pe-sardonically observed, The more Im not with people thepin cookbook of mine and a raft of the chef's instructional Please address all correspondence to: less I want to be with people. I sometimes feel that wayvideos he hunted down. When he wasnt watching videos, Visual Impact Advertising, Inc. too. Many of us are getting very used to being in our ownhe was practicing his newfound skills in the kitchen. The P.O. Box 198 bubbles or pods and are alternately feeling fine and not soproof was everywhere: the sink, the counters and the floors. Maplewood, NJ 07040 fine about being isolated. There is an advantage here: his knife skills are such that I 973-763-4900 On the one hand, its good to be content and able tocould turn over the slicing and dicing tasks of dinnerand mattersmagazine.compower through this crazy season. But we do need each oth- I didnt mind sampling his crepes.info@mattersmagazine.com er and having a vaccinated world in sight gives me hopeChristian also continued teaching himself Swedish, an in-Matters Magazine is owned and publishedthat we are getting closer to our destination.terest born out of a trip we took a few years ago and is almost by Visual Impact Advertising, Inc., P.O.What else to do than continue to rely on the hobbiesconversational in the language. In fact, his phone is set to Box 198, Maplewood, NJ 07040. Mattersthat keep me sanewhether its reading or riding my bike,Swedish. I found that out recently in the car when I asked Magazine is free, with editions direct mailed 7 times a year to the residents of Maplewoodtending to my plants or trying a craft or home improve- him to quickly bring up directions so we could navigate our and South Orange and distributed to busi- ment project. These diversions keep my brain active andway out of a traffic jam. Unlike him, I didnt know that svng nesses and surrounding communities total-ing 16,000. Subscriptions are available toallow me to feel like Ive accomplished something. I canvnster means to turn left. Its a good thing Google maps non-residents for $30 (U.S.), $40 (Foreign)watch TV or scroll through social media for only so long! reroutes, but I wasnt happy about the missed turn.annually. No part of the publication may beWhen I reflected on my interests in a what shall I doIm hoping that were just months away from no longer reprinted or otherwise reproduced without writtenpermissionfromVisualImpactnow moment it struck me that so many of them are thehaving to be socially distant. Its been a long road. And Advertising, Inc. hobbies I adopted when I was a child or young adult. Nat- while we wont be able to pinpoint the day when we can CIRCULATION VERIFIED BY urally, with age, Ive delved deeper into these pursuits, butannounce Were here! our gradual return to normal will U.S. POSTAL RECEIPTS. I cant say Ive developed many new ones. Its easy to blamehave us side by side telling each other stories of how we READ & RECYCLE it on the responsibilities of adulthood. Once you get a full- managed the hills and valleys of a trip we hope never to take time job, add a home and children into the equation, youragain. 10/ matters magazine / winter 2021"