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All our social recipes have had to be revised during this pandemic. Relationships that were stably based on the routine of life have been blown to smithereens by the pressure cooker of constant togetherness. (I'm remembering here the one time I tried to use a pressure cooker, when the steam vent blew and I had smithereens of whatever it was all over the ceiling.)
There are so many variations on this enforced togetherness: two parents working from home while tending to three-year-old twins. So far I think that's the family I would least like to trade places with. But also those whose 20-something children have come back to the nest where both parents are out of work and future prospects look grim. Or parents of school-age children seeing the defects of on-line teaching as their children pine for friends. Or single people isolated for months.
And these are just a few of the situations I know of. The luckiest people are us. The two of us and so many friends in the same boat: both retired. Introverts. Foodies. People with pensions (the last generation with decent pensions). The only worries we (the wider "we") have is finding how to live together every minute of the day. Or rather, finding ways to separate just enough so we don't kill each other. (And if we –the wider "we"—feel that urge, we with our optimal situations, then imagine the homicidal urges popping up in the daily lives of those we know and love.)
So we need a different recipe for living right now. We need more breathing. More space—mental and emotional if not physical. We need more compassion, arms wide apart to signal the start of a virtual hug. More gratitude. More gratitude. More gratitude.
Musings blog: http://www.scenesfromthejourney.blogspot.com
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