Dave Atkinson, in yesterday’s edition of The Quack, reflecting on COVID lock-down from four years out:
I tend to think of the early lock-down era as a lovely break from life that we were all unfortunately too scared and stressed out to enjoy. I do remember saying out loud I hoped there were lessons from this era we’d carry forward when it all ended. I especially liked the feeling, for a little while, we were all on the same page.
My memories of early lock-down are coloured by grief—Catherine had died only two months before we all went on anxious furlough.
I remain unclear whether enforced isolation was ultimately helpful or harmful to my grieving self: it certainly drew Olivia and I closer together, and allowed us to take comfort in a very small life after wading through a very big life for as long as we could remember.
But I can’t help but be angry at the universe for dealing that hand at that particular time, a time when my soul wanted nothing more than freedom, spaciousness, and the universe thought it right that I be locked in my house, alone with my complicated child, to stew in the opposite of that.
Comments
Perspective may not be everything, but it is very important. I was thinking about that time 4 years ago and remembered being at Catherine's memorial, hugging people, being sad, wanting to honour her memory in ways you suggested in the aftermath. My personal perspective of early Covid is very different. I did start that time in hospital for heart surgery - from my perspective a major event and from the perspective of the surgeon, a routine, almost boring (no complications) event. Post the immediate recovery and challenges of getting from Ottawa to Charlottetown at the end of March 2020, a great many good things happened in my life. It can be easy to forget the tension and grieving and life-altering fear that others experienced and some are still experiencing. Perspective, accompanied by, to the best of my ability, empathy, and memory.
For some people it's "a lovely break from life", others watched people dying on hospital corridors, lost their livelihoods, supported their sick and then disabled friends & had their medical care rendered inaccessible. How interesting, the diversity of life^Wprivilege.