A lot of this was so absurd, and I really hope we will be able to look back in some sort of amused wonder at what people fell for.
I will never forget what the social isolation felt like. I realize I cannot possibly describe it sufficiently to anyone who either lived with others during COVID or worked with others during COVID. Everyone suffered in their own way, in their own circumstance, but this is what it felt like to me:
I am naturally extroverted. I lived alone. My office sent us home to work remotely for over a year. My family did not want me to visit often during the first year because of fear of contagion (different household) and, later on, because I am unvaccinated. We wore masks and didn't come within 6 feet of one another. I felt sad that this was occurring during the last years of my elderly parents' lives, but at the same time I was grateful they were not locked down in a nursing home. My adult children would occasionally visit me, but they kept it brief, wore masks and did not hug me. My book club went virtual. My church went zoom.
Whenever I ventured outside of my home for legitimate reasons of exercise, going to the grocery, driving somewhere I needed to go (rare, because most everything was closed, and there was no need, and besides you could get everything delivered) -- I was confronted by a sea of masks. Not a single human face did I see for so many months.... except over zoom, or my own face in the mirror.
Zoom and facetime are not the same thing as real human interaction. But it helped, and I clung to it, just as I occasional went to the grocery simply to soak up some human energy. Instead of going through the self checkout, I would go through the cashier line deliberately, if only to exchange a few "hows it goins" muffled behind our masks.
I do not know how I made it through that. I thought quite a lot about what solitary confinement might feel like, and wondered if this was close. (I still don't know.)
Every night when I tucked myself into bed, this same thought would creep in: "well, there goes another day (of my life). What is this (life) for, now? Will this ever change?"
Up until COVID happened, I was in perfectly good mental health, I had friends, and could easily meet and make new friends, plans for the future, frequently saw family, coworkers, would go out to happy hour, on dates (that's an entire other story), as I mentioned book club, would smile at strangers and they would smile back, etc. It was a nice life.
COVID lockdowns were brutal. The shunning of unvaccinated people which really took off towards the end of summer 2021 was the cruelest thing ever, though at least by then our office had reopened. I applied to become a volunteer mentor to a child, and was turned down because of my unvaccinated status. This rule still persists. It's baseless and wrong.
If any of that sounds like whining, that's not my intention. It was honestly an extremely rough thing to go through, and now that the masks are off , those "bubbles" are gone, and people are not so fearful, I have hugs and normal human interactions again. That is all I and many others ever needed. I don't ever want to give that up again.
We are having a respite now from this tyranny, but don't kid yourself that it's over.
Non sequitur, since I just saw you over on YouTube: FreeX support subscription should carry over here. I would find it generally more convenient to consume your content through substack.
A lot of this was so absurd, and I really hope we will be able to look back in some sort of amused wonder at what people fell for.
I will never forget what the social isolation felt like. I realize I cannot possibly describe it sufficiently to anyone who either lived with others during COVID or worked with others during COVID. Everyone suffered in their own way, in their own circumstance, but this is what it felt like to me:
I am naturally extroverted. I lived alone. My office sent us home to work remotely for over a year. My family did not want me to visit often during the first year because of fear of contagion (different household) and, later on, because I am unvaccinated. We wore masks and didn't come within 6 feet of one another. I felt sad that this was occurring during the last years of my elderly parents' lives, but at the same time I was grateful they were not locked down in a nursing home. My adult children would occasionally visit me, but they kept it brief, wore masks and did not hug me. My book club went virtual. My church went zoom.
Whenever I ventured outside of my home for legitimate reasons of exercise, going to the grocery, driving somewhere I needed to go (rare, because most everything was closed, and there was no need, and besides you could get everything delivered) -- I was confronted by a sea of masks. Not a single human face did I see for so many months.... except over zoom, or my own face in the mirror.
Zoom and facetime are not the same thing as real human interaction. But it helped, and I clung to it, just as I occasional went to the grocery simply to soak up some human energy. Instead of going through the self checkout, I would go through the cashier line deliberately, if only to exchange a few "hows it goins" muffled behind our masks.
I do not know how I made it through that. I thought quite a lot about what solitary confinement might feel like, and wondered if this was close. (I still don't know.)
Every night when I tucked myself into bed, this same thought would creep in: "well, there goes another day (of my life). What is this (life) for, now? Will this ever change?"
Up until COVID happened, I was in perfectly good mental health, I had friends, and could easily meet and make new friends, plans for the future, frequently saw family, coworkers, would go out to happy hour, on dates (that's an entire other story), as I mentioned book club, would smile at strangers and they would smile back, etc. It was a nice life.
COVID lockdowns were brutal. The shunning of unvaccinated people which really took off towards the end of summer 2021 was the cruelest thing ever, though at least by then our office had reopened. I applied to become a volunteer mentor to a child, and was turned down because of my unvaccinated status. This rule still persists. It's baseless and wrong.
If any of that sounds like whining, that's not my intention. It was honestly an extremely rough thing to go through, and now that the masks are off , those "bubbles" are gone, and people are not so fearful, I have hugs and normal human interactions again. That is all I and many others ever needed. I don't ever want to give that up again.
We are having a respite now from this tyranny, but don't kid yourself that it's over.
Non sequitur, since I just saw you over on YouTube: FreeX support subscription should carry over here. I would find it generally more convenient to consume your content through substack.