Today is Whatsday, the ?th of Monthy
No, it is not early onset dementia when your boss tells you on Friday afternoon, “we’ll pick this up tomorrow…” or when you realize that that Zoom meeting you were thinking was tomorrow has started without you. Living without the rigorous schedules that define our lives, many are having trouble remembering the date, day of the week and even month.
Living without the rigorous schedules that define our lives, many are having trouble remembering the date, day of the week and even month.
My father, in retirement, used to say that days of the week had become meaningless because ‘every day is Sunday.’ But for those of us trying to maintain a semblance or normal living (and work) are finding it disconcerting to say the least.
There are two choices people suggest. Either maintain your routine as much as possible or embrace the strangeness and appreciate the opportunity to pause a bit more, commute a lot less and take advantage of opportunities to do things like get the laundry done in the middle of the day instead of when you get home.
For me, it has to be a combination. I still try to keep my regular ‘work’ hours, wear a collared (admittedly a golf shirt not a button down) shirt while at my desk, work in a dedicated space, etc. But at the same time, I will admit to streaming more music during the day (no coworkers to annoy or disturb) and recently took advantage of my newfound proficiency (and knowledge of the existence) with Zoom to participate in a virtual ‘reunion’ with a few high school friends I haven’t seen or spoken to in more than 30 years.
On that call one of the four of us admitted that, if they can continue to work and run their small business from home, they have discovered that they have no desire to go back to working from their office — the hassles getting there, the cost of rent, etc. are offset by the discovery that yes, she can be just as productive from home. Still others lamented missing their office colleagues and work routines. The ‘loss’ of those things is only seen or felt as a loss when, in this person’s case, they were not replaced with something better. That person was one of the more than 40 million who have lost their income as well as their workspace. They are finding it hard — as I have when out of work — to find any respite as they have fears about paying the bills and maintaining access to health care.
Like a vacation, it is only relaxing if it is your choice and there are no negative consequences. So it is important to be mindful of the many who ARE finding this time more than just strange; for them it is terrifying. And that’s without considering ‘what if I get sick?’
The other thing I have done is to not rely on my phone or computer for tracking the day of the week. I have gone back to using a manual calendar to mark the beginning of each day. In my case, a gift my senior year in college of the calendar above. The first reassurance that I wasn’t losing my mind was the dual gift of finding it where I thought I had left it, and my ability to still be able to ‘solve’ it to set the right date.
I have gone back to using a manual calendar to keep track of the days.
So, we may be going a bit stir crazy from not being able to do everything we’d like, but at least we can keep ourselves from losing our minds by accepting and balancing that which we can control and that which we cannot. And helping our friends and neighbors whose situations may be far worse than our own. Right now, the virus is in control. We have to be able to adapt. Because it is simply indifferent to the suffering it is causing.