Something very eighties happened. My son took a bike ride. He didn’t tell me that he’d stopped off at a friend’s house to play socially distanced Horse. He was supposed to be back in 30 to 45 minutes. Instead, hours later, he came home. “Two basketballs, mom. And we used hand sanitizer. And we didn’t get within six feet.” He was in hot water, not just for possible virus transmission but also for forgetting to update me. I was in the car on a search-and-rescue mission because this uber-responsible kid wasn’t answering his phone. He was doing what teenagers used to do: taking off and hanging out before showing up at dusk for dinner. When he got home sticky and happy, and abashed for causing me to worry, I thought about what a wholesome problem this was and how lucky he is to have the experience of unscheduled joy that was so common a generation ago.
What has been lost in the name of progress? (There have been gains, too, obviously. People can work from home. Staying connected virtually has never been easier. The gains are a post for another day.) People don’t have expanses of time, with rest and boredom. Consequently, they don’t have the creativity and fun that blossoms from those things. Americans are over-scheduled and strung out on an adrenaline-infused lifestyle. Before they go back to work (if they can), it might be well to consider what they want their lives to look like.
Our esteemed editorial director Wlady Pleszczynski calls this space of quiet and remove “the extended Sabbath.” I’ve been ruminating on this idea since he said it last week. Before COVID-19, where was the time for languid discussions about a book? When, in recent memory, has a silly show like Tiger King turned into a national shared cultural experience? Families are back in the kitchen and cooking (or, in my mom’s case, baking) because there’s nothing else to do. That’s good, right? Hearth and home. Reflection and connection.
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See Also:
(1) The Trail Leading Back to the Wuhan Labs
(2) President Trump is Magnificently Right About Infrastructure
(3) Biden, seeking an answer to irrelevance, walks into Trump’s trap
(4) Why Severe Social Distancing Might Actually Result In More Coronavirus Deaths
(5) Trump fires Michael Atkinson, intel watchdog who handled Ukraine complaint
