I know we have a scary situation ahead of us that will affect lots of people, especially marginalized people, and I’m very lucky that I get to write this… but I gotta say, so far staying at home and the overall slowed-down pace of life has been really nice.
Yesterday I was able to start the day by doing some yoga, going for a bike ride, and writing instead of scarfing down breakfast and diving right into emails. I was also able to spend some time in thought about a couple projects I’m working on rather than trying to keep up with deadlines. I’ve accepted the slowed-down pace of business and realizing a lot of the growth I had been previously rushing towards will just have to wait. I made a nice lunch at home, had conversations with friends, spent time with Christine, and took frequent walks to clear my head as I worked. These are luxuries I don’t often afford myself on a workday.
Towards the end of the afternoon, I comfortably shut my laptop without feeling like “if I could just finish that one more thing my day tomorrow would be easier” (which is never as successful as I’d hope) and took a nice bike ride through Balboa Park.
On the way to the park, there were virtually no cars. The zoo was closed, so the crowds I usually have to traverse through by the entrance were all gone. Near the Prado and main plaza, there were people out and walking around, mostly in pairs. I saw one group of guys sitting on blankets six feet away from each other while chatting and drinking beers. Other people were out for jogs or bike rides like me. It was definitely less crowded than usual but still a good amount of people. There also seemed to be some cognition towards everybody giving each other space.
The most interesting thing was when I crossed the bridge to the other side of the park with the more open grassy spaces. There, spread out at self-imposed distances, were lots of young families playing in the grass. They seemed very relaxed and energetic, enjoying the cool evening air. I got the impression that these were probably families that had stayed home from work and now were able to enjoy an evening together without the tension having just finished a grueling workday with a frazzled commute home. They just seemed happier than I’m used to seeing people on an average Tuesday afternoon.
I’ll be curious to see what lessons we all learn from this time of slowed down life, for better or worse. Will we learn to love and appreciate a less frantic pace and more time with loved ones, or will be pulled back into the rat race as soon as it’s over? Will we remember how easily we were able to discard unimportant work with the threat of global pandemic, or will we just create it anew for ourselves all over again? Will it resonate with us how all those meetings didn’t have to happen, how all those emails didn’t need a response, how that one last item on the to-do list really didn’t need to be done today? Will we remember all our good-natured calls to help one another, or go back to a more insular place.
We’ll see what happens, but the first couple of days have already been enlightening. For now, I’m going to try and enjoy the slowdown while I can.