Here in British Columbia we are in for two more weeks of emergency measures – code for fourteen more days of social distancing and self isolation. Aloneness. It’s been two months since I’ve kissed a grandchild or hugged my kids, two months since I’ve met a friend for lunch. I’m not sure I will remember how to be social once we don’t have to keep our distance anymore.
I started this self isolation thing with the best of intentions, I had big plans to peel off a few pounds and emerge like a glorious butterfly when we were all set loose again. I was going to rock my spring wardrobe. As the days of isolation have accumulated and weeks have rolled into months it’s become apparent my spring wardrobe may not even make an appearance this year – we could be well into summer before we re-emerge. I have not peeled off one pound over the weeks. My metamorphosis will not be all I had hoped.
For all the grumbling I do about long days and isolation and weight gain and haircuts you would think I’ve got it rough – I don’t. The things I poke fun at are pretty inconsequential in the scheme of things. Covid19 is changing the face of the planet. I’m not sure what the world will look like when I step out of my cocoon.
Do you think we will ever feel comfortable in a crowd again? I hold my breath when I pass someone in the grocery store, I avoid getting on an elevator, I dodge people on the sidewalk and they avoid me in the same fashion. Will we be able to come back from this? The consensus is the handshake will become a thing of the past – not that I’m a hand shaker but I’m a hugger and you can bet your bippy hugging will be even more taboo.
How will we come together when we are able to come together? How long do we have to wait to find out? The virus doesn’t have a schedule or deadline – it’s going to do its thing until we can outsmart it and I fear it could be awhile before that happens. The whole world is putting heads together; scientists, doctors, philanthropists; throwing everything they’ve got at this global pandemic and still the death toll rises. Economists predict it will take us years to crawl out of debt and I predict it will take at least those years to feel confident again.
The planet is going through a metamorphosis – we will come out of this changed. Only time will reveal what that change looks like and only patience will see us through.
Comments (2)
I, too, am an unreleased (and unready) butterfly awaiting…?…to emerge fit, toned, slender, mysterious and endlessly fascinating 😃 Thank heaven for our imaginations and our dreams. I woke this morning from yet another lucid dream thinking, “you actually have to do the work, you know…” while avoiding my reflection in the mirrors.
Changed world, indeed. Your post made me wonder again about the Spanish Flu and how so many things had rocked the world of the people alive then—our ancestors—. While the media coverage and personal range of communication wasn’t what we now have, they must also have felt much the same. I wonder how long it took for them to feel comfortable again. (Ditto polio). Maybe they just grew into, or stayed in, a world where there was constant danger but you moved in it regardless. We have been doing that too but have been lulled by our vaccines and hospitals. Perhaps we will develop—are developing—our own PPE, our Personal Protective Expression in how we will move forward as individuals. We are learning a lot about ourselves, what we feel is important or necessary, if we are open to it. If there is time (thinking of the working families with children at home). I don’t imagine I will put away my washing of all vegetables with soapy water and a bit of bleach, let lapse my store of dried fruit or nuts, my cartons of frozen non-lactose milk, and at the same time, my need for minimalism which wars with food abundance. Thank you for these moments to stop, and go inward.
Nancy – thank you for this thoughtful comment. I’ve thought about the Spanish flu and polio and measles… all things we as a society have lived through and come out the other side. My hope is once there is a vaccine we will do that again.