Category: Pandemic Notes
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We value your memories.
Facebook shows me. Photos of old friends I’ve not seen in a decade, or more. It tells me people who don’t know me from Adam think I should go fund them. It applies a bolt of you know, those hormones that make you start, sweat, and feel like you’re not really here? Like you’re not…
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I was 15 when they started school-shooter drills.
A few days ago, I wrote this piece on Facebook in response to a Business Insider article about the riots at Capitol Hill on 6th January, 2021. In it, they said that Nancy Pelosi (the Speaker of the House) said that “rioters thumped on the door of the barricaded conference room while staffers hid, and…
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Just type: layers like duvets filled with lead
Just_type. No editing. Full-on whatever the hell comes out of the fingers goes on the screen. (I’ve not done this in a while). Sorry. Sorry for all of it. I’m trying to understand why I cannot easily focus right now. Trying to think about my mental health and deep feelings of insecurity and anxiety amongst…
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Good people are tired
Last week, I posted a Facebook announcement to a group of woodworkers that I administer. The post reiterated our inclusive stance and made it explicit that we do not allow racist content, and won’t take down anti-racist work. For example, we refused to remove a spoon that had written on it “craft against racism.” We…
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Pandemic Notes: layers, sleep, and it’s not yours to change.
A week of sleepless nights. I thought for sure I’d be asleep straight away. But, closing ones eyes often opens up the mind and heart. Sometimes, they can be distracted by fun and games – light-hearted telly, breathing exercises. But, draw back, look at what’s going on, and the medicinal application of comfort and numbing…
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Pandemic Notes: comic relief
When someone asked: “Wait. Why do we all wave at the end of Zoom meetings, now?” My reply: Cause you can’t find the unmute button, because that window is on the other monitor, and it’s behind the Facebook window, and your mouse is busy clicking on the latest coronavirus statistics news charts, and someone says…
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Pandemic Notes: and our echoed voices come back
A friend posted a link to an article that said something about the disease mess were in right now. This friend has a different friendship network from me. It’s interesting to see what their network thinks and says, so I happened to have a look at the dozen or so comments. Every single comment (at…
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Pandemic Notes: I’m done breaking things down, I need to build them up again.
I’ve been exhorting people to create. To reach out, and make something, in this pandemic – this soul-sucking time that suffocates spirit by cutting off humanity from our lifeline of humans. Creating extends. You reach for tools, for cameras, you stretch before and after you make. You don’t reach to read the news, you haunch,…
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Pandemic Notes: Quarantine introspection. It’ll kill you slowly, if you let it.
Thoughts follow thoughts, and patterns put a spin on them so they tend to go off in familiar directions. Right now, where I’m at, I’m finding it incredibly easy to think about what could have been. It starts quite practically: asking my imagination machine to show me what would have happened if, say, the US…
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Pandemic Notes: Leaders in a time of crisis have a much greater responsibility.
As a kid, I was taught that leadership is a service role. It’s a position that exists to offer support and builds people up to fulfill their potential, and as a whole, move toward a common purpose.