For those of us who understand discipline, I get it, but not very well right now.
Working on a post yesterday for the blog, I was typing away and then I realized it wasn’t working. There was no focus.
I think about those teaching from home to help educate our students. I think about those who are working at home, especially with a spouse working at home and children at home. I worry about the healthcare workers at all levels, the grocery store workers, the postal workers and delivery people, the artists and museums and galleries, the fire fighters and police and EMT’s, friends and family, people who have lost their income in the blink of an eye, for those who’re figuring out how to house the homeless, and the daily death count on the news. Oh, and the election.
It is worry-wart-ism at the highest level.
Then I remembered a column that ran in The New York Times about a week ago that touched on the situations many people have in the not-normal lives many have now. People can be told to be productive, but it’s just more stress.
The best two paragraphs? Here’s the first:
“As the coronavirus outbreak has brought life largely indoors, many people are feeling pressure to organize every room in their homes, become expert home chefs (or bakers), and get in shape. The internet – with its constant stream of how-to headlines and viral challenges – has only reinforced the demand to get things done.”
And this from an arts administrator in Philadelphia:
“ ‘We went and bought all this paint and cabinet hardware and thought we were going to do the kitchen cabinet project we had wanted to do forever.’ Two weeks later, he and his wife haven’t touched their supplies. They have two children and demanding jobs. There’s no extra time.”
Since it has been warmer, I was going to go up to the fifth floor attic to continue to tackle my own little Superfund site, with almost 40 banker’s boxes full of notes and some things that never should have been stored there for many years.
Sure.
Here’s the link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/style/productivity-coronavirus.html
Chandler in Denver 