Love in the Time of COVID-19

What. A. Time. It. Is.

Take it for yourself, take respite, take a spell off the grid and rekindle the self you’ve long missed.

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As we continue to wrap our heads around our first officiated pandemic, not that we aren’t the victims of other, more abstract pandemics such as racism, colonialism, and free-market capitalism, but hey, morality/philosophy will have to take a backburner today. No, today we’re dealing with a vicious strain of flu that has shutdown cities, closed international borders, and left the world with little to do but stream endlessly clever gifs.

As for myself it’s time to catch up on homework, continue revising my works in progress, and to spend much needed time with the family. This includes, but is not limited too, mass quantities of Winstead’s Hamburgers, Pokemon Dungeon Dx, Knausgaard’s My Struggle: Part Six, while allocating the remainder of my listless self to meandering forgotten trails, hiking, gardening, and listening, just being present.

Strange how we in the anthropology field have pressed the urgency of preparing, adapting, and taking preemptive steps to address the proverbial “pandemic of the future” but as it appears, the United States government took little heed. Gah, c’est la vie.

All we can do now is remain calm, open minded, and considerate of each other’s needs. Be compassionate of those with greater strains than our own and support them in this time of uncertainty.

I was going to use this time, this post, here, now to promote the relaunch of my bookshop but I find nothing more off putting and in bad taste than the hoards of emails I receive from brands dishing out
“kumbaya” this and that, and how much they care about their employees health and did I know they’re offering free shipping? Or, hey, BOGO!

This isn’t the time to save a buck on ball caps or sleek new sunglasses. Take it for yourself, take respite, take a spell off the grid and rekindle the self you’ve long missed.

I just want you to know i’m here, thinking about you. Wishing you well. And looking forward to the brighter future in which we learn from the current situation to reform, rekindle, and rewrite our legacies.

“Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending.”

H.W. Longfellow