Forging new Footsteps in the sand
Forging new Footsteps in the sand
55 days have passed.
More than seven weeks.
Almost two months, under a strange voluntary/obligatory house arrest. No word can describe that obligatory volunteering satisfactorily. That self restraint we all knew was right but became increasingly more debilitating the longer we locked ourselves up.
Words find themselves at a loss to describe the societal change that has now fallen upon us so dramatically and no words or explanation or situation could have prepared us for it. After all, only astronauts in outer space have experienced an isolation like it - only they have received elite training for it. Moreover, they emerge into a world they already knew. We are emerging into an unknown.
The government gave us four hours. The announcement came that night on the television: you must stay at home for fourteen days.
Neutrality
The masks present several oxymorons; they dehumanise us but protect our humanity; yet they turn us into expressionless clinicians. The plastic gloves lie discarded, blowing in the wind. They toss and turn in the wind, whipped up into a tornado of survival in the supermarket car parks. Where facial expressions are now frozen behind a fabric held by cord, our words now more than ever take their central role.
And as the fourteen days became twenty eight and twenty eight became a month and the month transformed into two, we became despondent, not knowing when we could emerge from the cocoons we had established; hibernating in the dystopian spring of twenty twenty.
Our entire world as we know it came to a paralysis. And although some had more reason to leave their homes than others and others had physical company, others had very little but more than they could imagine. No garden. No green. No natural space to gain that edge to fight that so natural unknown. But to delve deep into the imagination.
I have one conclusion to that draconian dystopia where children were locked indoors for six weeks whilst dogs ran free and wild animals emerged from the hinterland and strolled hestitantly but later jubiliantly and mockingly onto our empty roads, streets and looked curiously at us from the fields. The screens of social media mocked us, images from other countries flooded our artificial vision; people were out. Happy, smiling rainbows flooded our world. And while the intention was never there, seeing nature on a screen while not being able to step on it was more painful than the solitude ever could be.
Strength from the wilderness
A huge shock was inevitable in these times and strength will take time to rebuild after such a drain of positivity. It took us all our emotional strength to fight through those darkest moments. It was a chance to discover new things; but to maneuvre our bodies into an emergency stop for the sake of protecting the vulnerable would have drastic societal effects that may take a long time to blend with our new normal that we are beginning to forge.
And whilst some took to art, cookery and did marathons in their gardens and others threw themselves into their professional endeavours to blanken out the outside, some may feel concern or worry that they did not take advantage of that time and hoped it would just be over soon.
And that is exactly what was wrong with the normal. The normal was always about being exceptional and triumphing and proving something to others. Perhaps what some of us learned will only become apparent in years to come; a new normal is to be satisfied with what we have and sometimes just slowing down and doing nothing is more than exceptional than being exceptional ever was. Because doing nothing saved lives.
And what is more exceptional than that?
Playa America, Nigran
Saturday 9th May 2020
55 days have passed.
More than seven weeks.
Almost two months, under a strange voluntary/obligatory house arrest. No word can describe that obligatory volunteering satisfactorily. That self restraint we all knew was right but became increasingly more debilitating the longer we locked ourselves up.
Words find themselves at a loss to describe the societal change that has now fallen upon us so dramatically and no words or explanation or situation could have prepared us for it. After all, only astronauts in outer space have experienced an isolation like it - only they have received elite training for it. Moreover, they emerge into a world they already knew. We are emerging into an unknown.
The government gave us four hours. The announcement came that night on the television: you must stay at home for fourteen days.
Neutrality
The masks present several oxymorons; they dehumanise us but protect our humanity; yet they turn us into expressionless clinicians. The plastic gloves lie discarded, blowing in the wind. They toss and turn in the wind, whipped up into a tornado of survival in the supermarket car parks. Where facial expressions are now frozen behind a fabric held by cord, our words now more than ever take their central role.
And as the fourteen days became twenty eight and twenty eight became a month and the month transformed into two, we became despondent, not knowing when we could emerge from the cocoons we had established; hibernating in the dystopian spring of twenty twenty.
Our entire world as we know it came to a paralysis. And although some had more reason to leave their homes than others and others had physical company, others had very little but more than they could imagine. No garden. No green. No natural space to gain that edge to fight that so natural unknown. But to delve deep into the imagination.
I have one conclusion to that draconian dystopia where children were locked indoors for six weeks whilst dogs ran free and wild animals emerged from the hinterland and strolled hestitantly but later jubiliantly and mockingly onto our empty roads, streets and looked curiously at us from the fields. The screens of social media mocked us, images from other countries flooded our artificial vision; people were out. Happy, smiling rainbows flooded our world. And while the intention was never there, seeing nature on a screen while not being able to step on it was more painful than the solitude ever could be.
Strength from the wilderness
A huge shock was inevitable in these times and strength will take time to rebuild after such a drain of positivity. It took us all our emotional strength to fight through those darkest moments. It was a chance to discover new things; but to maneuvre our bodies into an emergency stop for the sake of protecting the vulnerable would have drastic societal effects that may take a long time to blend with our new normal that we are beginning to forge.
And whilst some took to art, cookery and did marathons in their gardens and others threw themselves into their professional endeavours to blanken out the outside, some may feel concern or worry that they did not take advantage of that time and hoped it would just be over soon.
And that is exactly what was wrong with the normal. The normal was always about being exceptional and triumphing and proving something to others. Perhaps what some of us learned will only become apparent in years to come; a new normal is to be satisfied with what we have and sometimes just slowing down and doing nothing is more than exceptional than being exceptional ever was. Because doing nothing saved lives.
And what is more exceptional than that?
Playa America, Nigran
Saturday 9th May 2020
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