creative forces

Blog# 103.1...March 2020

Today is the portentous Ides of March, and we have lots to beware don’t we?

I’m healthy, although old, so am more than usually aware of mortality and trying to live a good life, whatever that is.  We don't have an enforced seclusion – yet – but so many things are closed that it might as well be. So how do we deal with being inside, often alone, and concerned about our loved ones and the people in many ways less lucky than we are.

First of all, keep in touch by phone or email, with people close to you and maybe others who might be more isolated. And as your gaze is forced inward, frame the situation as solitude rather than loneliness, words mattter. 

We're forced out of our comfort zone in many ways - uncertainy about  the level
of danger to us and the length of time we'll have to wait to know. Our habits are disrupted, whether it's work, exercise, amusements or social contacts, it's a challenge to reconstruct a new way of acting. My particular loss is the pool where I swim, I can't imagine any other exercise that will give me the same feeling, but I have to try and find it. The collegiality is easier to replace, and we're onto that already.

One of the benefits of getting older (yes there are some) is being a bit more comfortable with ambiguity and the fact that life is wonderful and horrible, sometimes both at once.

So, hang in there, never been a more appropriate use of that phrase, and above all, find things that are funny,

                                     The New Yorker    March 16, 2020