Covid
Changes
“I
don’t know about you, but I’ve found the latest stage of the pandemic hard in
its own distinct way. The cumulative effects of a year of repetition,
isolation, and stress has induced lassitude—a settling into the familiar with
feelings of vulnerability. The shock of a year ago has been replaced by a
sluggish just-getting-to-the-end.”
David
Brooks (The New York Times Op-Ed, “How Covid Can Change Your Personality,”
April 1, 2021)
I
talked to my friends Ann and Ellen yesterday about this phenomenon and have,
over the course of the last month or so, spoken with others about it, too. These
feelings of “sluggishness,” and “lassitude,” that Brooks mentions, or in my own
words, “lethargy,” seem to be universal. It’s an uncomfortable lack of energy, an inertia, to engage in much of anything, even though, underneath it, there is a great
desire to get back to normal. At first, I chalked this up to age, but I’ve also
seen and heard it from both my sons—one who is 36 and the other, 43. It’s
different somehow from fatigue, and includes a loss of interest in social
interaction, loss of initiative in generating social contacts or creating opportunities
for social engagement.
Most of
us are tired of living our lives on screens. Zoom meetings are no longer
interesting and unique, and trying to negotiate the technology in every aspect
of life is simply exhausting. Just listening to the “Main Menu” on every single
call is enough to incite a revolution. As David Brooks says, our personalities
have been impacted in multiple ways: “liveliness is down, reserved is up;
carefree is down, anxious is up.” And then there’s the scattered memory! “What
was I looking for?” “Where did I leave my glasses?” “What was on my list of
things to pick up?” “Where is that list, anyway?” If any of that sounds
familiar, I’m your sister by another mother. It drives me crazy!
I’ve noticed that organizing and speaking a complete sentence is posing more of
a problem than before, too. I’ll get four words into an expressed thought, and my
speech will simply abandon the mission—gaps ensue into which one could insert a
multitude of erroneous things. I’ve been noun-challenged for a while, especially
if said noun is a proper name. But this is more that that—it’s an abyss into which
word-thoughts fall. I wonder if you experience that, too.
It’s a
very good thing that we are (pray, God) approaching the end of this pandemic
tunnel. I just wonder how long it will take us to emerge, and whether we will
resemble our former selves when we do. Right now, we’re like a B.C. comic strip—eyes
peering out from inside a dark cave. Is the sun too bright out there? Will we
get burned? I’ll send you some courage and please, do the same for me.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
No comments:
Post a Comment