Like a few billion people around the world, I am practicing a semi-enforced, self-isolation scheme called ‘social distancing’. Under normal circumstances, this scheme is my typical weekend, but when Sunday extends into Monday and Monday melts into all the other days, it starts to feel a little…rote.
Maybe, and this is a very loose maybe, you’ve started missing the stale air of the building you low-key dreaded entering for your full-time nightmare. Maybe you’ve chuckled at the memory of Dave rhapsodizing on productive emailing. Maybe you’ve started thinking that, when things return to normal, you’ll brave the mosquitos and other strange winged insectoids and go outside during your lunch breaks.
All these maybes are dangerous. Yes, this is a time of uncertainty and panic. Yes, you may feel useless, and yes, the processing power on your laptop combined with everyone and their uncle streaming cat videos makes working from home not just dubious but shitty. Yes, the commerce of work has supplanted our very idea of socializing, to the point where even celebrities are struggling to remain sane in their multi-million dollar terrace houses. Don’t worry, there’s no ‘Yes, but’ coming. No exegesis on the indomitable human will, no platitudinous remarks on the need for community in these dark times. Definitely zero anything regarding the irrevocable disruption of Life As We Know It (because when we talk of disruption, we only talk in terms of capital, not of actual life, you know, actually breathing).
Instead, yes to all that, and this is also a good time to take up a craft, read, understand the people to whom you are or choose to be related, write, play video or board games, garden, organize papers, rearrange living spaces, outline elaborate plans for future endeavors, and/or watch television.
I am partial to watching television. Not just putting it on to fall asleep or as background noise, but taking the time to select a show, adjusting my robe so I am fully ensconced in fabric, and pressing play. This is a good time to be distracted by engaging in a story, in perspectives and worlds that may be less surreal than the one we are living in today.
So, if you have some time, reliable internet, and at least one streaming subscription, below are a…
