My mom really loves "classic" Christmas movies. I sort of tuned them out for a lot of the time I had to watch them with her, but I remember VERY clearly that in one of them (I think it's White Christmas) a character is being read a letter from home...

... and the letter contains a mention that one of his kids has mumps.

And he waves it off and says something like oh, that's just boring family stuff.

I think about that a lot. Like, a lot. And I've been thinking about it a lot more as we get closer to vaccine availability.

I think about that and my mother telling me about lining up at the town hall to get her polio vaccine, and how her grandmother wouldn't let her go swimming in the lake until they got their vaccines. How excited she was to get her vaccine to go swimming.

I think about my grandfather, who had pertussis as an infant and didn't walk until he was 3 as a result, it set back his physical development that much.

But he was the lucky one: his brother died.

Vaccines are one of humanity's most miraculous inventions.

I can't wait for a vaccine.

I know intellectually that there was a time when mumps was common. Emotionally? I can't really conceive of it.

I really, really look forward to telling some snotty kid on social media in 15 years that we really WERE terrified of this virus.

I look forward to a 15yo not really understanding it the same way that I don't really understand mumps being common. I want it to be a matter of getting an annual booster shot. I pray for it to become routine: you get your flu shot and your COVID shot.

I can't wait.