Don’t Forget to Live
I want so much to blog something instructive right now.
It’s not like I hit a home run every week, but I’ve had enough successes to know the delight that comes from publishing something that really cracks open a few heads and gets appreciated.
But that’s not possible at the moment. Any signal I try to emit will get lost in the unbelievable amount of noise right now. There’s nothing that can be said, just because one other subject has sucked all the air out of the room.
An Honestly Big Deal
The current pandemic is certainly worth worrying over. This will have consequences—of that you can be certain.
But that’s the only thing you can be certain of. What shape those consequences will take is utterly up in the air. Everyone keeps asking if you’ve “heard the news” about the issue, but there is no news about the coronavirus, there is just a lot of talk.
And speculating on something before you know how it is going to turn out is how people get as stupid as they are.
Yes, we need social distancing. Yes, we need to all wash our hands and avoid large gatherings. Yes, we need to exercise due caution and good sense.
But once we have done that, let’s still find ways to live life. Let’s talk about things that aren’t the biggest subject in the world right now. We have books to read and movies to watch. And we have things to say about them.
There are projects we now have time for. Let’s hear about them. We have jokes to tell, music to listen to, and tons of other useless things to argue about.
Everything that can be said about the pandemic has already been said, so as long as we are taking the necessary precautions, let’s talk about something else. Let’s continue to have human experiences within the constraints we find ourselves in.
Otherwise, we’ll all surely go mad.
I’m Giving You a Week to Calm Down
Thankfully, it’s quite difficult for human beings to exert high levels of emotional energy for long periods. People burn bright, but they also burn out.
I expect all the current precautions and restrictions to still be in place one week from now, but I also require everyone to have come down from the crazy tree by then.
We are all terribly inconvenienced by this, so let us all be terribly inconvenienced in a rational and casual way. You have one week, world. If you don’t get yourselves in order by then, I shall punish you horribly.
If, in the meantime, you need to de-anxiety your brain, I recommend the following ASMR video.
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On the plus side, I will have more time to write and read more books.
We could all do so well.
Except for those of us who still have to go to work (don’t they know a pandemic is on?).