Yesterday, as I was digging through my purse to find my keys, masks were falling out of my purse, all over the place, like it was a volcano spewing blue and white lava. Sometimes, when I reflect on moments like these, I sit in awe and wonder and disbelief, at just how completely bizarre my ordinary, suburban life has gotten to be. My friends send “Score!” texts when they find cans of Lysol or Clorox wipes for sale somewhere. Big Brother makes frequent, stern announcements over the speakers in my grocery store, to follow the directional arrows, in the aisles and when the announcement is made, everyone looks like sheepish robbers, while donning our masks, whispering apologies for having our carts pointed in the wrong direction. We’ve made the decision for our daughter to start out school online, fully recognizing that most of the high school teachers are my age and older, and thus, probably as adept with computers as I am, which is terrifying. Anytime anyone in our family coughs or sneezes or complains of a sore throat, the first step for me, is to practice mindful breathing, so as not to go into a full-blown panic attack. The list goes on and on. If we thought life was absurd before COVID, we are definitely in Wonderland territory, now.
“In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of the world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods.” – Arthur Schopenhauer
“Basically, at the very bottom of life, which seduces us all, there is only absurdity, and more absurdity. And maybe that’s what gives us our joy for living, because the only thing that can defeat absurdity is lucidity.” – Albert Camus
My son is finally leaving his “starter job” at Target (I will miss the employee discount and the convenience of texting him to bring home ) and moving on to a job that is closer to his passion. For the next year, while waiting for school to resume, he’ll be working full-time at Auto Zone. Both of his vocational school courses are cancelled for the fall semester, since they are in-person, hands-on, no possibility of social distancing learning experiences. At first I was grieving the break in his education, but now I see it in a different light. Working full-time will give him valuable experience IRL. He’s been struggling to adult, and a REAL job will be a huge life lesson. It will also provide an excellent opportunity for him to save a lot of money, which he can use to establish his own residence in a year or two, or finance his dream trip to Japan when it is once again safe to travel. So although life becomes curiouser and curiouser, it always leaves room for growth. I would never have wished this plague upon our world, but I am excited to see the new innovations that result from it.
This is very inspiring, Kelly, thank you! I was just having a socially distanced meet-up with some good friends at a park and one of my girlfriends, through all kinds of good, divine serendipity is actually having one of the best years of her life. I think that is wonderful and inspiring and I agree, there is a good plan, even if we don’t see it yet. 🙂