Quarantine 13

Our daily lives have narrowed down to home, house, books, and for the lucky ones, the garden. This is especially true for people like me who are retired and consequently have no children who have to be home schooled. For working parents with young children, it is a different matter altogether and they experience situations they never imagined could happen. It must be a struggle to work from home on top of helping your kids with their online lessons and keep them happy. For the former category I belong to, nothing worth mentioning happens, only in our minds. We have time to reflect on all sorts of things, decide whether what we are doing is the right thing and worth-while. We cook and bake, try new dishes, write letters or emails, and even send real postcards to people who are in quarantine, who can’t be visited and have no access to computers or other digital media. A card with a real stamp! Not even easy to buy now that all post offices are closed and it is not always clear where we have to go for stamps. Of course, nowadays everything can be done at home and online: make a stamp, print it, stick it on the envelop and pay online. But there is no fun in that. Nothing beats a real stamp, I think.  It would be possible to start sewing a new dress, a summer skirt with a cheerful and bright pattern. But there isn’t much stimulus when we can’t have any parties, visitors, can’t see friends, family, and so on. Who is going to admire this new dress? Who cares anyway? And how long will this situation last? By then I might have put on lots of weight due to lack of exercise and the nice clothes might not fit me anymore. So there is this waiting game. Spring cleaning, repairing things which should have been repaired long ago, all that is possible. And it seems many people are doing it, clearing out their attics and cupboards, downsizing, scrubbing and painting. The long lines in front of DIY stores are proof of that. Just as well not everybody followed Mary Kondo’s example and got rid of all their books to replace them with e-books and e-zines and a digital newspaper. I like the feel of a real book, to turn its pages, to see how many pages there are. To browse back, put bookmarks between important pages, highlight certain lines or scribble comments in the margin. But in fact, all these “normal” things which are not spectacular, may be a blessing as well, providing us with a less hectic lifestyle. Less commuting, fewer unimportant meetings, more fun time with the family, board games after e-learning at home, homecooked meals now that fast food places and restaurants are closed. And weather permitting, finding the joy of just reading a book in a lounger in one’s own garden. And perhaps we will discover again what is really important: good health, friends and relationships, family, nature. It is not wealth and money.