corona envy

Part of me is hoping I get exposed to the coronavirus...

OK, not really! But I can't help but feel a little bit of envy for folks who get to work from home or who have weeks of not doing anything because they are in quarantine.

When lock downs first started there were a bunch of asks on social media for TV series recommendations. One person's Lord of the Rings relaxation marathon sparked more than a tinge of jealousy in me.

I've also noticed more people going for strolls. I live near a nice park and while I get plenty of steps on most days walking to and from the train for work its not the same as a relaxing jaunt through a lightly wooded area on a spring day.

A couple of articles have come out about other activities folks are doing now that they have more free time. Book sales are booming especially on what one article called "bucket list" books like Joyce's Ulysses. Another story I read said that google searches for how to bake bread were up, confirming my suspicion that we had been selling an awful lot of yeast and flour at our store recently.

So no I'm not really wishing for coronavirus and in fact with record numbers of folks filing for unemployment I'm glad that so far my pay has not been affected (though I do wish the company I work for did more for us). I guess I just wish I had a paid vacation, a luxury my coworkers and I don't get. One social media-er said something along the lines of, "When this whole thing is over maybe you all could run things for a while and us 'essential workers' can take a month long break."

I do wonder if this forced slow down has not shown some light on what could be an altered reality for us. Wouldn't it be nice if we all had time to go for a walk, trying our hand at a new hobby like baking, or read the books we've always wanted to? What if we could slow things down in a more controlled planned way rather than in the economic meltdown/people dying in a pandemic kind of way?

Some folks have suggested that something like a 20 hour work week would be feasible at this stage of human development. The thought is with automation and increased efficiency we are now capable of producing the things we need with less effort and so don't really need everyone working as much as we do now.

This would require re-prioritizing our economic values. There couldn't be both billionaires and barely-getting-by-workers as we have now. We couldn't have the redundant production we have now. In the world we live in some folks get rid of perfectly good, functional stuff to buy newer, more fashionable things (clothes, cars, cell phones, etc.) and companies literally design stuff to break after a while so that you have to buy a new one.

The coronavirus catastrophe has brought about talk of what is "essential," jobs, needs, etc. Maybe if we developed this concept of essential in a healthy way we could live lives with more walks and fresh bread and time with our families. Maybe we could all have the rest we need and wouldn't have to wait for a global pandemic.