Week two of unemployment, week four of being cloistered at home, week six of reading stories concerning the crisis, week eight of wondering when and if the world is coming to an end, week ten of doing art, writing, research, and whatnot, week twelve of my hours of internet 'screentime' steadily growing, week fourteen of this blasted year 2020.
Out in the world, my world being a very small island, not a lot is happening. There are less people here, a lot less, a mere gaggle of what used to be a horde that was so common and familiar that their absence has only served to illustrate their presence, if that makes any sense.
The beaches are still as beautiful and inviting as ever, only you can't hang out on them. The County will chase you off if you so much as settle on the sand. 'To get exercise' is the only valid reason for being there.
There are still too many people, I think, going into Target, Walmart, and Costco for goods. I guess 'stocking up' is a learned behavior.
There really is no reason to go out, is what I''m trying to say.
Nobody is answering the phone at the unemployment office.
I was cooking early on but now I yearn for takeout.
I hope he brought water. Could be awhile.
Finding Dan Dan Grinwis- Unsplash.com
Classic Literature forays have been interesting. I have completed 'Moby Dick' and moved on to different fare. Of these dishes, some have failed to satisfy. James Joyce's 'Ulysses" I tired of early on. 'Wuthering Heights' got me lost because I wasn't intently focusing on every nuance of the constantly developing story so I tossed that one off to the side.
Finding myself hungering for heartier fare, I took on 'A Clockwork Orange'. Haven't finished it yet and though I watched the movie long ago I was surprised to hear that the author of this controversial tome (Anthony Burgess) had written an introduction to the work, published long after the original book had been made into a movie. In this introduction Burgess says that the book (and the movie based on the book) did not tell the entire story. When Burgess finished the book in 1962 it had 21 chapters. The American publisher he approached would only allow 20. Burgess at the time was hard up for money so he settled. Stanley Kubrick, making the movie some ten years later, based his movie on the American version of the book, 20 chapters long, whereas the European versions contained the 21st chapter. In that chapter, ultra-violent bad boy Alex changes significantly- for the better! The book was meant to be a moral showcase of the ages-old struggle between humankind's propensity to tear things down rather than build them up.
Me, being all ethical and moral and harping on those sorts of thing a lot, eagerly await listening to the 21st chapter.
Also on my listening list has been a very clever book called 'Diary Of A Nobody' , which I recently completed, and 'Grapes Of Wrath', which I have just begun. I'll tell ya, I find the world of Tom Joad awfully depressing. Might not make it to the end.
Exercise has been taking place at 'Fort Cozy' (my name for my partner and I's shared abode) in the afternoons. Either a You Tube superburn aerobics workout, Chi Gong, or a video featuring one of my partner's friends, who sponsors workout classes on Zoom.
Between all that exhausting activity, a precursor to the fascinating world of retirement, have come a multitude of other diversions but you can only take so much. Not that I’m complaining, have a loco notion to return to the world of work, or haven’t the deepest concern and sympathy for people who are suffering. It’s just that there’s little I can do about The Situation. Life must go on- and on it inevitably does.
Homes are our liferafts during these strange and mysterious days, and we are afloat on them, seemingly cut off from all others save for the distances that can be spanned across the digital divide. Until sleep, food, drink, or exhaustion knocks us out we have lots of time to fill. That's the thing everybody gets to learn about staying home (not just the unemployed) during this time. You never knew so many hours existed in a day!
Until the next exciting installment, then.