On this past Monday, the governor here in the State of Washington issued a decree that people just need to #staythefuckhome until further notice.
In plain English, all stores and public spaces except for supermarkets, pharmacies, delivery services (and the post office) and essential services need to stay closed, and people need to stay home, except to run essential errands.
From listening to a lot of people, you'd think they'd just been handed a sentence of solitary confinement in a dark dungeon at a maximum security prison!
Signs of new life in our lawn!
OMG, I'll be so BORED!
Maybe I'm just a weird nutjob in being able to say that I cannot remember ever having been actually bored in my life. Perhaps the closest I can think of was attending back-to-back-to-back financial workshops at retail association trade shows, back in "another life."
I guess my starting point is that I have never equated "doing nothing" with "being bored."
The only thing I can really say about this stay in place order is that I will no longer have any legitimate excuse for not tackling all those projects I have been shoving aside for years, with the excuse "I'll get to those when I have more TIME!"
Guess what? Now I have more time!
I could always take up rock stacking...
Loss of Imagination?
I remember my late auntie in Denmark — who passed away at age 94 — being fascinated by much of the new technology coming along... but also having some reservations about it all.
One of those reservations was the thought that if we keep inventing machines and technology to think and do everything for us, we'll forget how to do those things manually.
She also thought that computers being able to deliver all the information on the planet in a matter of nanoseconds was cool, but worrisome in that we might forget how to think critically for ourselves, and actually problem solve without the help of technology.
Lastly, she feared that we'd lose our sense of imagination and creativity, if we found ourselves in a situation, absent technology.
Heather in bloom
No Worries!
Thankfully, I feel perfectly capable of entertaining myself while cooped up at home... possibly for the next thirty years, if need be!
I've got blogging to do!
I've got art to create!
I've got a spring garden to care for!
I've got an old stamp collection I was planning to work on "after retirement!"
I've got home projects that need doing!
I've got a closet full of boxes of "stuff" to put on eBay!
I've got outlines for a couple of books I want to write!
And there's lots more... but such a long list would become very boring...
A very happy daffodil
A Form of Learned Helplessness??
I've long been an advocate of "technology breaks."
I believe technology is an awesome thing, but I also believe that when we spend so much time with it that we develop a sort of dependency, we also run the risk of forgetting how to entertain ourselves when situations like the current COVID-19 crisis comes to us.
On top of that, this same technology has perhaps (at least in part) also made us feel "dependent" on always "having something going on" in our worlds. Then things grind to a — in this case involuntary — halt, and we don't know what to do with ourselves.
We actually feel slightly helpless. We're not really, but we feel it.
Frankly, I'm grateful that much of the "noise" of the world has become subdued!
Hyacinths in the sun
Choosing Where We Put Our Attention and Energy!
Some of this potential helplessness is effectively a matter of choice, even if it might be inadvertent.
Where do we put our focus? What do we put our energy into?
If you sit in front of the computer, watching the "case counter" of new COVID-19 infections all day long, and do nothing but read articles about how financially fucked we all are, you will be able to create a self-induced state of helplessness!
My guess is that nobody is holding a gun to your head, saying that you MUST be glued to all the disaster monging!
By all means be informed about what's going on, but don't turn it into an obsession! Personally? I refuse to give in to all the fear mongering.
And that INCLUDES the counter-culture fear mongering that this is "all a government plot" to rob us of our freedoms.
As the saying goes, "Worry is like making an advance payment on a loan that may not ever come due."
Now, go make the most of your day!
What are YOU doing with all this extra "home time" you likely are having? Are you feeling bored? Or helpless? Or do you see this as an opportunity to do something different? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.)
Created at 20200325 13:48 PDT
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