Well said, this was a challenge before Covid and unfortunately after as well. My wife and I often observe that the walls of culture (in this sense a culture of restlessness and rejecting our finitude by doing-doing-doing) are forever closing in. You must be intentional and reflective, always pushing back against them! It is possible, but you do have to say NO to a great deal, even to good things, but the decision is always worth it.
Good post, I resonate with a lot of this. IME, 2020 was very difficult but 2021-22 were some very formative and good years that felt more human in the way you describe. (one man's experience)
Unfortunately, I don't think we've had either a broad societal reset in a positive direction, nor healthy reckoning, accountability, transparency, or humility from an institutional and governance perspective. Sometime last year I started to feel the sense that society writ large and institutions are trying to go about some "business as usual", as if this is a continuation from 2019 timeframe, and we probably haven't fully healed or processed.
I did not enjoy lockdown. I worried about the moms locked in high-rises without AC with screaming toddlers they couldn't even take to roped off playgrounds. I worried about the seniors whose nursing homes became jails, or killing fields. I lay awake wondering how people in domestic violence situations were coping. I don't even have kids, but I knew what was being done to kids and youth was cruel and criminal - do anything normal and you kill your grandmother. How could we pull that insanity on children of any age? Since when did we privilege old people near the end of life over the future of the young? (I'm 68 and did not consent to that cruelty, not that anyone asked.)
It broke my heart to see 3-year-olds masked at the farmer's market store. I tried to help a woman, a stranger who called me repeatedly from her poverty and isolation in a downtown high-rise, who wanted nothing more than an assisted death. I hated the stupid masks that impeded breathing and conversation. I hated the snitch lines and the worry that the police might stop you if drove out of town to visit a friend. I hated that hiking trails in the middle of nowhere were closed. I hated the push to inject poison shots and the segregation that came out of that. I loathed the division into essential and non-essential people. The only redeeming thing to come out of the experience has waking up to the evil that even now masquerades as public good.
Beautiful piece and wonderful news on Tara’s addition as a Contributing Writer. WoC is hitting it out of the park, cornering the market on vital writers!
This is a very interesting piece. In some ways I agree! There was a new found sense of collective engagement that was enjoyed by many in the UK. People banging out their windows in thanks for the healthcare system which stood at breaking point early on during the virus and people giving the little that they had amongst each other helped foster community and connection.
Although, this was short lived and I think in retrospect necessarily so. These were not a deep or genuine fostering of community connection but i think it was closer to survival responses. In some ways as the piece said it was like war time but war time doesn't go on forever and our collective efforts begin to wind down once the security of the state has been achieved. We saw this play out very quickly with covid.
We also I think saw the differing experiences based largely on economic privilege play out. Lockdown wasn't necessarily so bad if you could escape to a second home or had a big back yard to go out and experience outdoors, peace and quiet or order expensive food shops and high brow entertainment. While that did not quench the thirst for social interaction zoom made that process slightly easier even though we are still reeling from the social and work effects of such an invention.
But having lived in a poor part of a big city and being in the middle of my PhD during lockdown I can only say it was largely a miserable and hellish time. Stuck inside an overpopulated house with dodgy internet I can't say that I had the feeling you describe. I still had the feeling that I had to 'do' everything but now I was existing in a space where I had to do it alone. My supervisor who was immuno compromised couldn't meet, my research materials were stuck in the office as I was laid low with covid before lockdown and what was already a lonely experience turned into full on isolation with the arrival of lockdown. The experience triggered a re-emergence of relatively severe depression which I've struggled with since my first year at university.
The social damage which has been done is serious and we haven't begun to even think about how to fix it. That's not even discounting for the educational disadvantage which has been visited upon our young people. Covid was not just a medical disaster but a social and economic one too. The expensive management crippled many economies, dragged the job market to a stuttering halt and at best has released another endemic which will continue to take up significant healthcare resources. We still live in the shadow of covid and it has been nothing short of a disaster that I wouldn't visit upon my worst enemy.
Welcome Tara!
Well said, this was a challenge before Covid and unfortunately after as well. My wife and I often observe that the walls of culture (in this sense a culture of restlessness and rejecting our finitude by doing-doing-doing) are forever closing in. You must be intentional and reflective, always pushing back against them! It is possible, but you do have to say NO to a great deal, even to good things, but the decision is always worth it.
Good post, I resonate with a lot of this. IME, 2020 was very difficult but 2021-22 were some very formative and good years that felt more human in the way you describe. (one man's experience)
Unfortunately, I don't think we've had either a broad societal reset in a positive direction, nor healthy reckoning, accountability, transparency, or humility from an institutional and governance perspective. Sometime last year I started to feel the sense that society writ large and institutions are trying to go about some "business as usual", as if this is a continuation from 2019 timeframe, and we probably haven't fully healed or processed.
I did not enjoy lockdown. I worried about the moms locked in high-rises without AC with screaming toddlers they couldn't even take to roped off playgrounds. I worried about the seniors whose nursing homes became jails, or killing fields. I lay awake wondering how people in domestic violence situations were coping. I don't even have kids, but I knew what was being done to kids and youth was cruel and criminal - do anything normal and you kill your grandmother. How could we pull that insanity on children of any age? Since when did we privilege old people near the end of life over the future of the young? (I'm 68 and did not consent to that cruelty, not that anyone asked.)
It broke my heart to see 3-year-olds masked at the farmer's market store. I tried to help a woman, a stranger who called me repeatedly from her poverty and isolation in a downtown high-rise, who wanted nothing more than an assisted death. I hated the stupid masks that impeded breathing and conversation. I hated the snitch lines and the worry that the police might stop you if drove out of town to visit a friend. I hated that hiking trails in the middle of nowhere were closed. I hated the push to inject poison shots and the segregation that came out of that. I loathed the division into essential and non-essential people. The only redeeming thing to come out of the experience has waking up to the evil that even now masquerades as public good.
Amen to all. We can barely begin to comprehend the damage done that will reverberate through our world for decades.
Beautiful piece and wonderful news on Tara’s addition as a Contributing Writer. WoC is hitting it out of the park, cornering the market on vital writers!
This is a very interesting piece. In some ways I agree! There was a new found sense of collective engagement that was enjoyed by many in the UK. People banging out their windows in thanks for the healthcare system which stood at breaking point early on during the virus and people giving the little that they had amongst each other helped foster community and connection.
Although, this was short lived and I think in retrospect necessarily so. These were not a deep or genuine fostering of community connection but i think it was closer to survival responses. In some ways as the piece said it was like war time but war time doesn't go on forever and our collective efforts begin to wind down once the security of the state has been achieved. We saw this play out very quickly with covid.
We also I think saw the differing experiences based largely on economic privilege play out. Lockdown wasn't necessarily so bad if you could escape to a second home or had a big back yard to go out and experience outdoors, peace and quiet or order expensive food shops and high brow entertainment. While that did not quench the thirst for social interaction zoom made that process slightly easier even though we are still reeling from the social and work effects of such an invention.
But having lived in a poor part of a big city and being in the middle of my PhD during lockdown I can only say it was largely a miserable and hellish time. Stuck inside an overpopulated house with dodgy internet I can't say that I had the feeling you describe. I still had the feeling that I had to 'do' everything but now I was existing in a space where I had to do it alone. My supervisor who was immuno compromised couldn't meet, my research materials were stuck in the office as I was laid low with covid before lockdown and what was already a lonely experience turned into full on isolation with the arrival of lockdown. The experience triggered a re-emergence of relatively severe depression which I've struggled with since my first year at university.
The social damage which has been done is serious and we haven't begun to even think about how to fix it. That's not even discounting for the educational disadvantage which has been visited upon our young people. Covid was not just a medical disaster but a social and economic one too. The expensive management crippled many economies, dragged the job market to a stuttering halt and at best has released another endemic which will continue to take up significant healthcare resources. We still live in the shadow of covid and it has been nothing short of a disaster that I wouldn't visit upon my worst enemy.