Time in the Time of Covid19 by @Edenbaylee
The world is finally united.
I just wish it was for something good instead of the deadly Covid19 virus.
Being isolated at home with my husband is not a hardship. We’ve worked from home for years, but now, I’m cooking a hell of a lot more! We don’t go out for dinner like we used to. We did, however, venture out of the house over a week ago, but that was for essentials.
Okay, I lie.
Wine really isn’t an essential, but it makes life a bit easier.
Physical isolation from the outside world has thrown off my sleep patterns, even more so than usual. The days of the week, normally a marker of tasks and events, are now cluttered in my mind.
Does Monday feel different from Thursday or Friday? Does it even matter?
Certainly, the precision of time is now less important. There are fewer (no) appointments or meetings I need to keep. I don’t have to check my schedule because … well, there’s no urgency to be anywhere.
Instead, mundane tasks such as making meals, cleaning, and laundry now occupy more of my attention.
This might explain how I nearly forgot about my turn to blog here (23rd each month). Has it already been a month since my last article?
Time has warped for me.
I carve out my days with segments of bad news, writing, food prep and cooking, social media, an exercise class via Zoom, a nightly cocktail with a girlfriend, and more bad news.
I should skip the news, but I can’t.
Many of us have had to rethink the way we interact with people. Thankfully, media platforms such as Messenger, Facetime, Whatsapp, and Zoom have allowed face-to-face meetings. At a time when we are distancing from others, it’s comforting to see a friendly, animated face, even if separated by a screen.
My reasoning for this is that we cannot know how long we’ll be under lockdown. As a pragmatic optimist, I also fear we will not all come out of this unscathed.
Though time is finite, I’m not rushing to get back to what used to be normal. Once the distancing measures are relaxed, there will be a lengthy adjustment period with all the scars that go along with it. I hope to be here again in a month, but I won’t take that for granted.
Stay safe, and do tell me how you’re doing. Has time warped for you as well?
Big virtual hugs,
eden
😘
Big virtual hugs,
eden
😘
Comments
We have a government that over half of us didn't want, pushing policies we don't want. We are divided over leaving Europe and over whether we should continue lock-down or end it.
It's true, and hopeful, that many people are responding with great kindness and generosity, but I still feel it's a very uneasy, uncertain time.
I just hopped over here from your site. Being in the UK, I also am in full agreement with Susan. I'm that disgruntled with how our government are more concerned with their one-trick pony of Brexit that they are just going through the motions and lying through their teeth now they have a nightly platform on tv and have virtually no scrutiny from parliament.I've been writing and publishing a weekly Locked Down Poem and on looking back can see how they were all sweet and nice about nature at the beginning and have now got to pure anger. I remember the old anti-Vietnam war chant of "How many kids did ya kill today LBJ" therefore came this weeks have a go at the PM:-
Lockdown Poems
Hey, hey Boris J,
How many old people did ya kill today?
How many lies on PPE
went out on the TV?
The nursing staff should be in power,
while you, Raab, Hancock should be lower
than the cleaners on Priti's list,
immigrant workers have more right to exist,
than you shower of shits.
Hey hey Boris J,
How many frontliners did you kill today?
How many more will you kill tomorrow?
While the rest of us are made to borrow,
our way out of your crisis
we may as well have been ruled by ISIS!
Hey hey Boris J,
How many Bus Drivers did you kill today,
Because of your lousy delay,
incompetence and shame,
while you hide away and blame,
the Chinese, Europeans, Bumboys,
Letterboxes and any minority your ploys,
of nationalist rhetoric,
shows you up for the lazy prick,
you really are
hiding in a fridge or bar.
And Brian, that's one hell of a poem. It resonates with the anger I feel every day but have to try and push to one side in order to carry on. Have you shared it on Facebook or anywhere else at all? I would very much like to (perhaps not under my children's author nom-de-plume, but on my angry social media accounts...)
I sympathize with all that is going on in the UK. I'm no fan of Johnson and his bumbling, frat boy ways. That was fine in pre-Covid times, but you can't lead like that in a crisis. He and the leader south of us (who gets along well with Johnson, and whose name I won't mention as he's such a disgrace) are cut from the same cloth. A crisis requires serious thinkers, plans, an ability to think beyond one's own needs.
We are certainly in a crisis now, and I don't believe either are up to the task.
Canada has been united from the top down. For this, I'm grateful. There will always be dissenters, but the different parties have put their partisanship aside for now. Time will tell.
Stay well, xox
eden
*Big wave*
You hurt my feelings! What do you mean "Our chats may not be of any consequence?"
We're solving world problems most of the time, aren't we? :D
xox
e
Life , death, politics, inequality, ineptitude -- passion-filled topics, made all the more difficult when we don't have confidence in those who decide our fate.
I love your poem and thank you for sharing it. xox
eden
You give great hugs, thank you!
xox
Thanks for the quote, reminds me I need to reread Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy. It's a surreal time, isn't it?
I'm not a huge chocolate fan, but I love salty chips (or crisps as the Brits call it)! Pairs well with wine and rage!
Agree with you on Brian's poem, hopefully he adds it somewhere more public.
Be well and stay healthy,
eden
I did share the poem on my Facebook but I'd be happy for y'all to share it around. You know how Facebook works, they keep it to your closest buddies.
When I first posted it they held it up for a while so I went on a workaround. I used my old Byron George account, which was set up in Thailand, then shared it to myself.
I think we need to show them how angry we are sometimes. For us writers, it is good for us to keep pushing the boundary also and emotion should always work.
Thanks to all you lovely Writer friends,
Brian xx