Year of the Virus

Here we are in quarantine.

It’s a scary time to be alive. Pandemics don’t just happen every day. Right now, we’re living through a period that will go down in history for its global repercussions and economic fallout. Staying at home is cool and socially responsible now. Washing your hands, sitting on your couch, avoiding other people? You’re saving the day, my friend.

No really, I mean that. This is the best thing we can do right now. We need to stop the virus in its tracks, to cut off the chain of infections. Practicing social distancing is the smart thing to do. Ignoring the medical advice and warnings from the authorities and mounting casualties from around the world…

Yeah, not smart.

So we sit at home, confined to our tiny kingdoms. Extroverts suffer and introverts rejoice until they start feeling the strain as well. People need people, it’s how we’re wired. Now more than ever is a time to appreciate the power of the internet. Video calls, text messaging, online communities. These are the things that get us through the days. We’re all in one big long-distance relationship now.

When we do venture out for food or essential work, masks on and hand sanitizer at the ready, we find a world far quieter than the one we remembered. Buildings shuttered, roads empty of traffic. Queues and temperature checks at the pharmacies and supermarkets. We see pictures online of unpolluted skies and sparkling rivers, wild animals venturing into deserted streets. Nature is finally getting a chance to catch her breath.

To be honest, I kind of like it.

Not the circumstances, to be sure. But I like having the time to be still. This feels like my mother’s chemo, those long days at her bedside in the hospital ward, reading books and playing with my phone and staring out the window. Torn between fear and anxiety and distraction and boredom. Hoping modern medicine will prevail against an illness that struck out of nowhere.

Here we are in quarantine. It’s a time to slow down, to consider what’s working in our lives and what we’re better off without. To strengthen our relationships while we have the chance. To play games and solve puzzles and exercise together. Time to pick up new skills or improve existing ones, cooking and baking and indoor gardening. Learning a language, playing an instrument, taking up drawing again. Time to read books and binge Netflix and clear out your video game backlog.

Time to maintain a daily routine. To show up for work on time even when you’re working from your bedroom. To take deep breaths when your kids are screaming, the walls are closing in, and the future is more uncertain than ever. Time for prayer and meditation. We all need something to believe in right now.

Time to keep calm and carry on, because this isn’t over yet.

So I sit here at 10:30pm, typing this out to My Chemical Romance playing in the background, thinking absently that The Black Parade is one of the best albums ever made. Danger Days isn’t bad either. I wonder how long it will take before the virus is defeated, and what the world will look like when that happens.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring.