Hitting the Pandemic Wall

7 August 2020

I am a great fan of news podcasts; my fandom was forced upon me.  Whenever I try and turn on a mainstream media news program these days, my family screams, “Turn that crap off!!!!” Thing is, I am stating much more politely than they do in real life.  Thus, as I walk in the morning, I listen to the podcasts in order to stay informed. After I have burnt through two or three of these programs, I am continuing to listen to Will Durant’s take on the Roman republic. 

As a side note, the Roman Republic discussion says a great deal about where things stand in America today. Durant asserts the loss of a communal national vision of societal goals, the overall shift in personal behavior from creating things to appropriating things, the increase in wealth disparity between the haves and the have nots, and the loss of the old nation unifying focus provided either by religion or stoic philosophy killed Rome.  Ah, if we look at our nation in the mirror, are we any different? Doesn’t it seem like we don’t have a unifying core set of beliefs anymore?  Doesn’t it seem like our political processes are no longer responsive to the needs of the common person?  Isn’t the wealth differential unconscionable? Sigh.

But back to the Pandemic Wall. According to the Make Me Smart podcase today, the New York Times reported in a recent article that last year in the pre-pandemic times, 1 in 12 adults suffered from an anxiety disorder.  Now, that number has bounced quite a way up.  According to the Kaiser Health folks the number of adults with anxiety stands at 1 in 3. Among black Americans that number climbs to 2 out of 3. People on a day to day basis have stresses and depressing moments in normal times.  However, when people look at how long the strains and existential threats of the pandemic will be part of daily life (for another year or more at minimum), many an individual’s mental health wagon loses a wheel.  

Being 64, and with some of those conditions that make Covid-19 deadlier, I am now sentenced to isolation.  The people in my household are also sentenced to that isolation to protect my wife and I.  Over the past few days I have been hearing repeatedly from sources I trust that we need to prepare for at least a year of wearing masks, social distancing and isolation.  Ugh.  I feel my mental health wheel coming loose.

Here is one of my more significant concerns. I live in Michigan.  At best, at very best, Michigan is 2 ½ months away from the first snow and then regularly freezing temperatures. Right now, in relatively warm weather, my prison of self-isolation includes my house, my yard and long walks through the neighborhood.  My prison’s exercise yard is thus expansive. With the exercise component days are currently bearable. When the weather constricts my exercise yard, life will be worse, much worse.

Come mid-October to late-November, my prison will shrink to the 2,200 hundred square feet inside the four walls of my house. This is the mental wall I hit yesterday.  I retired for activity, not for imprisonment. Obviously,I am going to have to dig deep to figure out how to soldier on through this. I have some ideas, and I will come up with a plan.  Still, right now, while I don’t feel anxiety I can see if from here.  I am also pretty sure from reading other friends’ Facebook posts I am not alone in this status.

The Pandemic Wall is a big bad cinder block ribbon standing in the way of our regularly scheduled lives. It is a bother, it is a burden, it can be crushing for those without work and with dwindling resources.  Still, I believe we can make it through this. Even isolated I think if we stay focused on the basics, good hygiene, masks and social distancing we can beat Covid 19 back, way back, until there is a vaccine.  Let us hope Operation Warp Speed delivers and delivers quickly.

But if it doesn’t….