Is It a Tremor in the Force?
What you are Feeling in the Lockdown, is just about Right.
We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care at all. Eleanor Roosevelt
Do you like the word — Lockdown?
Do images of safety, compassion and goodwill come to you when you hear the word?
For me it doesn’t, not exactly; but that doesn’t mean I disagree with its use. A lockdown is an exterior constraint on our movements and our innate urge to mingle and touch and be close to other living things. It’s not natural even though a virus is.
It’s not natural to sit continuously in deep thought — unless you have chosen a life dedicated to meditation and spiritual growth. Equally, it’s not natural to have our wishes and our intentions curtailed to such a degree that we feel imprisoned.
But we are not in a prison? We are in our homes and our gardens and in the company of people we love.
So why the tremor?
All Earthquakes and Disasters are warnings; there’s too much corruption in the world. Aristotle
What did this man mean by corruption, 2500 years ago? Was there a Wall Street in Ancient Greece? Did the average citizen back then have anything disparaging to say about their elected officials?
The root word, corrupt, comes from — Com — meaning, together and rumpere — meaning, to break into pieces.
When what we hold to be true for us, when our lives as we define it, is changed dramatically, and taken out of our control, it feels like it is being broken apart.
But is it?
Are we broken? Are the negative thoughts and feelings that we are experiencing right now a natural outgrowth of our situation? Is it inevitable that we will think dark thoughts; feel depressed, get the Blues?
No one loves being told what to do. Ask your kids, what’s their answer? And yet we are told what to do everyday of our lives. We stop at red lights. We drive on the right side of the road. We don’t leave restaurants without paying the bill first.
Everyday, our lives are filled with rules and guidelines and things we must not do. And yet we live through it. So, is the Lockdown normal?
The average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain. Colin Wilson.
A fair assessment of our current situation or an overly pessimistic view of man?
We move through life incrementally and accept what happens to us in minute measures, so much so that we tend to not notice when things build up to critical mass. Then we often find ourselves, heads swiveling back and forth, wondering what the fuck just happened?
So, what did we miss?
When we buy a new car, we are accepting on good faith and on the solidity of the warranty, that the car will perform as described and that we need not worry about future reliability. The market dictates that such guarantees be put in place in order for it to function.
But what about our elected officials? Is it all on them to do the right thing? To predict, plan and prepare for disasters and then tell us what we should do?
I posit that we have left our lives to our elected officials for a little too long with too little supervision. Imagine a large group of toddlers, left in the playground overnight. What did we think would happen over such a long period without supervision?
What can we do now?
MAKE NO LONG TERM DECISIONS NOW
It’s easy to slam down the phone, shout out a few cuss words and vow never to do that again. The promise rarely holds, when made in anger. Instead start taking note of what’s not okay. What feels wrong, or incomplete, or poorly done. Inside your life or outside of it. By people you know intimately or by those you elected.
WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE
Continue that list. Keep it short, keep it real. No Miss America promises about ending world hunger in one year. Simply put — what do you feel is the one or two things you need to get more control over in your life. Underline it.
START INCREMENTALLY
Dashing off a letter to your congressman stating that you want them to do something now, may seem like a good starter plan. But, it’s what 10,742 other people are doing so … Instead look for something you can influence. A cause, a group that reflects your sense of rightness or injustice or compassion. How can you support the changes they wish to make? Name one thing you would like to see changed that impacts the quality of your life. Start moving towards that.
MARATHON AND NOT A SPRINT
Don’t go the way of the New Year’s Resolution. You may be working on this for a while. Get your mind wrapped around that fact. You have a life, a wife, kids, a job, the lawn, the house — keep it real. Whatever you need to do has to be done in the time you can make for it. DON’T put it on the list if you’re not willing to stick with it. We’re not talking a life commitment here. Maybe it’s getting the park back open. Or that library they closed due to budget shortfalls. Or getting a better candidate on the ballot. One that listens.
SHARE YOUR PASSION
Knocking door to door — up to you. Probably more casual conversations, letters, emails, anecdotes told next to the coffee machine at work, will be better suited to this type of campaign. Keep it light, keep it focused, just do a little every day. Starting 10 push-ups a day will eventually get you to a 100 and feeling a lot better.
The thing about (family) disasters is that you never have to wait long before the next one puts the previous one into perspective. Robert Benchley
The Lockdown Blues will pass, but they should not be forgotten. There is a reason we felt every feeling. That reason should be respected and listened to. I keep reading that the whole Pandemic affair is an opportunity for change. I would have preferred something on a smaller scale — but okay. I got it. Let’s learn from this and from how we’ve been feeling. Change is up to us.
Joe Luca is writer and editor for ILLUMINATION and a published author and writer of children’s stories, short fiction, non-fiction articles, screenplays and poetry. Publications include Child’s Life, Children’s Playmate and others. There are some other articles below — have a read. And thank you for stopping by.
