a few mid-may pandemic noticings

you know that feeling when you’re watching a train wreck? when you really don’t want it to happen but you can’t look away? i feel like that’s what’s been happening the two couple of weeks and especially this past week. watching different states and also the trump administration stay committed to “reopening the economy” is just wild.

beyond that though, i wanted to share a few noticings i’ve had or heard about

1. somehow, in the last two weeks, my work pace has picked back up to pre-covid levels. the problem with that is that the amount of grief and chaos hasn’t actually gone down that much. more work + existing chaos is really not good. on friday, i realized i need to implement even tighter boundaries on my time and energy. or else my schedule fills up to an untenable pace and that is just really not ok in these days (was it ever?).

2. people are re-orienting to nature and their local places. i have been on so many phone calls where me and the other person are walking around our homes and noticing way more than we had ever before. my weekday morning coffee walk has allowed me to watch the tulips come up, bloom, and fall away, petal by petal. i wonder what will happen with this many people doing types of things like that, even if not to this depth (and hopefully some are going even deeper).

3. traffic has returned! i’ve heard this from 3 ppl in the last three days. how is that happening? why is that happening?

4. i think there are two patterns happening regarding reduction in adherence to the shelter-in-place/lockdown restrictions. the first is the right reaction against “freedoms being limited.” in my mind, the american definition of freedom has been narrow and limited and honestly just impossible from the start (it’s basically the ability to do whatever i want whenever i want with no consequences). but the folks who feel their ability to do what they want be limited are reacting by wearing masks less, going to their usual haunts, having larger and larger gatherings etc. the second reaction, though (which is probably also a part of the first reaction) is people being unconsciously aware of just how important their interpeseonal and touch needs are. and folks are just acting to get them met and taking on risk without being fully aware of the systemic risk many individuals will create with that pattern. i don’t think i’m excluded from that category by any means. but the fact that people will go actually insane if we don’t get our social needs met, i think, is causing tons of people to take small steps back away from the lockdown protocols and that will create an emergence pattern that i just can’t imagine will be bad.

all that to say, it’d be great if things just unfurled into a beautiful new normal where we had collectively learned how to move this portal with beauty and ease… and i just really feel like what we’re about to see is a train wreck. i have my own fingers crossed that i’m wrong!

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