The Day the Earth Stood Still
A global pandemic, and the day we realized what was actually happening.
The Coronavirus pandemic began, for me, exactly two weeks ago today. I had just gotten word that school had been cancelled a week before what was supposed to be our Spring Break. I was relieved at the time as I had been coming off a show in Orlando, and I was tired of the drudgery of what my teaching job had slowly become.
Though I admit now that these were selfish thoughts, I thought of all the things I could accomplish with the time off, and all the projects that I had been working on that I could finally complete. Though I felt some hesitation due to the seriousness of everything that was beginning to happen, my girlfriend and I still decided to go out that night. It was as if nothing had changed, and I won’t soon forget the huge mass of people conglomerating together for the St. Patty’s Day celebration over here in downtown Lakeland.
It wasn’t until several days later that shops began to close, and we began to find out what businesses were and weren’t going to be open. As always happens when news spreads quickly, and over a vast population, the naysayers and conspiracy theorists began to put their two cents in. Despite some businesses closing up, and the school systems-at-large closing their doors for the foreseeable future, people were still going out en masse to public places in what appeared to be an attempt at taking advantage of the newfound freedoms that the pandemic had inspired in the first place.
It wouldn’t have mattered if 75% of the population agreed to stay indoors in order to fight the disease as best was possible, because the 25% who would decide to go outdoors anyways, and act as if nothing was wrong, would eventually force stricter and stricter provisions to be put into place. And that’s exactly what happened. As I sit here and type this right now we are currently under an executive order that would dictate all Floridian to stay at home except for “essential activities.”
Essential activities vary in interpretation and largely seem to have to do with seeing family, if necessary, or maintaining a job. As we struggle to understand our new realities of having to stay indoors and re-connect with ourselves, we are beginning to understand a reality that has not been available to us for nearly our entire lifetimes. Namely, a reality that forces us to slow down.
We are taught from a young age to compete, compete, compete, and grade school enforces this behavior. The students with the highest scores, and the highest grades are constantly rewarded, while the students who struggle tend to struggle more only because they were struggling in the first place. On top of that, kids are told that they should compete against their peers athletically in order to gain more standing.
I cannot honestly remember a reality in which the ever-present specter of competing for something was not inherently felt. All of a sudden, every single person in the world had been put in the same situation where we are quite literally fighting for our lives. The feeling is humbling, and it is one of the more intimidating factors of this pandemic.
As an artist, the constant gnawing dread that you are not doing enough work in the back of your mind is perpetual, and reinforced by the fact that someone is always working on something, even if you aren’t. The arts, and especially music, have been affected drastically by this crisis. What we once took for granted in the fact that large amounts of people were allowed to come together, at any point in time, to enjoy a spectacle or a performance, puts many artists who relied on such mass gatherings in a dubious position.
All the same, for once in our entire lifetime every artist is in a position where they have to take a step back and reflect, if only for the fact that we literally cannot throw live shows for the time being. Once again, we begin to realize that these illusions of worth or value that seemed so real to us beforehand begin to dissipate in the face of crisis. It makes one question whether or not the value was ever real.
We know from history that we have beaten adversity, and moved past to return to a sense of normalcy. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “This too, shall pass.” After all, Elvis Presley appeared on the scene not 10 years after WW2 — the deadliest crisis in the history of humanity. We will move past this and we will return to life as we knew it; however, the severe changes that this brought on does make one pause to think.
For starters, what was the purpose of the lifestyle we lived before all of this? When I say “lifestyle” I am referring to the highly competitive nature of daily life, day in and day out, and it never stops. You wake up in the morning to go to a job that helps you to pay bills, support your arts and sometimes buy nice things, and then once you get home you crank out a dinner that allows you enough energy to get a workout in — a workout you know will you need lest you begin to feel energy deprived again. After a shower, you break out some writing, or a song to finish, and then do some work for your job you have the next day, which you once again wake up for early in the morning — only to repeat the process every week.
I am loathe to complain about a life that affords me the luxury of sleeping under a roof every night, but when a lifestyle consistently drives you to the point of questioning your sanity you begin to wonder if anything is ever enough. But what was the purpose? This crisis has especially enforced this notion as we can easily see how quickly situations can spiral under certain circumstances, and people lose the sense of worth that they had only delicately established beforehand. Something has got to change, and this may have been the sign post to deliver that message.
If I go to take a walk outside, I actually see families and neighbors conversing with each other from across their lawns. There are less cars on the streets, and less aggressive traffic around 5 p.m. Everywhere has an air of stillness and quietude that sounds so unfamiliar, yet still so natural. People are seeing their family members, and reconnecting with those with whom they had previously lost a connection.
Some people are working, some people have only just lost their jobs, and many more to stand to lose not only their jobs, but also their lives, and still we stand under this looming threat together. And now more so than ever. For all that has happened, and for all that continues to happen, I only hope that once all this has come to a close we continue to remember what is actually important, and not whatever a silly competition chooses to reinforce. We are human and there is a necessity that we treat other with compassion regardless of any crisis we may or may not be going through.
As always,
