Pandemic Thoughts
It was right there, just on the other side of my window, that life once happened.
To walk among crowds! To bump into someone! Who knew that was such a blessing?
We stopped on a dime. That's something. Half the stuff we knew we should be doing socially, environmentally, and economically we didn't do because it would be "too disruptive." Well, we've done been disrupted!
We see the limits of being self sufficient. I'm basically fine. My yearning for the stimulus of social interaction isn't because I can't be alone with myself and don't have enough intrinsically-motivated interests. I can and I do, no problem. But the richness of social interaction, just being out there among not just friends but also strangers, is what life is for.
Being passionate about sports doesn't seem so silly now does it? What a spectacular achievement, to engage so many people peacefully in these passionate pursuits. Sure, sure many people have no sense of proportion about it, but that is quite literally true of every aspect of life. Personally, I'm looking forward to getting all agitated about the Celtics playoff games, should they reopen sans in-person fans.
It makes such a difference to experience art, music, and theater live doesn't it? I always feel like there is something in the room with us, sort of like the Holy Spirit. Maybe it's just how people get tuned together to a higher level. Imbibing the arts online is still pretty good though.
For a while there I thought our response to the pandemic showed we could transcend our polarization. Hah! "Both sides" are guilty of hyperbole, but it especially doesn't help when the president is the main one fanning the flames of resentment and partisanship. Surprise.
I'm by no means a science worshiper, an adherent of scientism. But I stupidly thought science had relegated such pandemics to the province of history. You know, like 1918 or the Black Death in the Middle Ages. Well, we are better able to mitigate and minimize the damage than they were, but the social and economic costs are high.
Sometimes this all feels like a dress rehearsal for when all of life will be lived virtually and digitally, since no one will be able to go outside anymore or we'll be living on the moon or something. This will all seem totally normal for anyone born into it.
It's not like we can't go out and shop. But the cost-benefit analysis tempts me to just stay home instead of standing in the clearly marked positions six feet apart and then to have to follow the arrows once in the store. And then to have someone glare at you when you somehow get closer than six feet.
Zoom is pretty cool, but sometimes I just want to hear a voice and not see the face.
Asians have always been big into face masks. I guess we get that now.
Our flowers and blossoming trees know nothing of the pandemic. Nor does our beloved cat, Andy.
Can I say that I even miss the jet noise overhead from all those flights that used to be taking off from Logan? No, I can't.
To walk among crowds! To bump into someone! Who knew that was such a blessing?
We stopped on a dime. That's something. Half the stuff we knew we should be doing socially, environmentally, and economically we didn't do because it would be "too disruptive." Well, we've done been disrupted!
We see the limits of being self sufficient. I'm basically fine. My yearning for the stimulus of social interaction isn't because I can't be alone with myself and don't have enough intrinsically-motivated interests. I can and I do, no problem. But the richness of social interaction, just being out there among not just friends but also strangers, is what life is for.
Being passionate about sports doesn't seem so silly now does it? What a spectacular achievement, to engage so many people peacefully in these passionate pursuits. Sure, sure many people have no sense of proportion about it, but that is quite literally true of every aspect of life. Personally, I'm looking forward to getting all agitated about the Celtics playoff games, should they reopen sans in-person fans.
It makes such a difference to experience art, music, and theater live doesn't it? I always feel like there is something in the room with us, sort of like the Holy Spirit. Maybe it's just how people get tuned together to a higher level. Imbibing the arts online is still pretty good though.
For a while there I thought our response to the pandemic showed we could transcend our polarization. Hah! "Both sides" are guilty of hyperbole, but it especially doesn't help when the president is the main one fanning the flames of resentment and partisanship. Surprise.
I'm by no means a science worshiper, an adherent of scientism. But I stupidly thought science had relegated such pandemics to the province of history. You know, like 1918 or the Black Death in the Middle Ages. Well, we are better able to mitigate and minimize the damage than they were, but the social and economic costs are high.
Sometimes this all feels like a dress rehearsal for when all of life will be lived virtually and digitally, since no one will be able to go outside anymore or we'll be living on the moon or something. This will all seem totally normal for anyone born into it.
It's not like we can't go out and shop. But the cost-benefit analysis tempts me to just stay home instead of standing in the clearly marked positions six feet apart and then to have to follow the arrows once in the store. And then to have someone glare at you when you somehow get closer than six feet.
Zoom is pretty cool, but sometimes I just want to hear a voice and not see the face.
Asians have always been big into face masks. I guess we get that now.
Our flowers and blossoming trees know nothing of the pandemic. Nor does our beloved cat, Andy.
Can I say that I even miss the jet noise overhead from all those flights that used to be taking off from Logan? No, I can't.
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