When we stop to consider what appears to be a worldwide pandemic on a scale the vast majority of humans on the planet have never seen before it makes me consider what it means to be human. In these times of quarantine and solitude, when we are all but confined to our homes (and I fear that moment is coming before long) it makes me wonder if life will ever return to normal, or some version of normal.
It makes me wonder at which point we stop being a society and start being a collection of people boarded up in our silos and never interacting with the outside world again. It’s increasingly clear to me that’s the direction we were headed in as it was, but now it’s a whole new world of discovery online.
The one positive that comes out of this whole, terrible, disastrous, awful pandemic situation is that I believe that we as people will come closer together and emerge from behind our screens, if only for a few months (then, I expect winter to come and possibly a re-emergence of this crap).
So, we are stuck in the house, together, and with only one another for company, one yearns for the freedom of excitement, of things to look forward to. I can’t promise I will never again complain about having to get up early to take my son to hockey but I can promise I will consider it should we ever be allowed back inside an arena. For that matter, I wonder about the upcoming football season, and of there will even be an upcoming football season.
That there is even a question that there might not be a youth football season in 2020 fills me with dread and disquiet; the fact our literal way of life can be so easily threatened by an illness makes me want to stop lifting weights for five minutes and dig into some chips.
Maybe popcorn. Jujubes are also delicious. Twizzlers, too, come to think of it. Also, chocolate. That shit is the bomb.
Where were we?
Right.
Human contact is what makes us human. It’s the in-between stuff that really matters. Stuff in
between our homes and jobs is what allows us to be us, at least from where I’m standing, anyway. Of course, I’m an extrovert. I love people and being around them. I draw my energy from people, and from their energy I can replenish my own, like an energy vampire.
The uncertainty, though, I think, remains the toughest thing standing between me and my own energy. I know I’m not alone. I have friends who are dealing with anxiety issues of different levels that makes my fear for my professional future (all gyms closed at least for the foreseeable future, classes cancelled. All that remains is FaceTime sessions, for the most part) feel like easy stuff to deal with when I hear about how some friends have daily panic attacks or others wake up in cold sweats because they don’t know how they’re going to pay their bills because no one can fucking go to work right now.
This situation is making me angry and irrational and looking for a scapegoat. Could one of those spring break doofuses from the Florida beaches could stop by my place for a quick punch in the face? I’ll totally wear a glove, too.
So. I’ll start posting daily from behind the quarantine line. It would be super dramatic of me to compare myself to Anne Frank, so I think a more appropriate comparison would be Harriet the Spy. I’ve upped my training to three hours a day in my home gym (thank goodnes for it) and I’ll post some video as we go along.
See you all tomorrow!