The Good Side of Bad Days: A Personal Reflection on the Covid-19 Lockdown

These are bad days. There is no doubt. Daily and hourly, we are bombarded with heartrending reports of rising infection rates and deaths across the world. It is no stretch of the situation to say that the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has shaken the world, flunked our finances, toppled our timelines and ruined our routines. 

For weeks, we have been holding on to dear hope for some good news but there seems to be no sign on the horizon. Even though there are many ongoing clinical trials for potential treatments, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says that there are no specific vaccines or treatments for COVID-19 at this time.

A situation natural to these circumstances is increased caution as evidenced by the declaration of complete and partial lockdowns in many countries. Ours is a partial lockdown yet the inconvenience has been widespread. The order is simple: stay at home. This is at first glance a delightful arrangement but it has become almost depressing because most of us are neither properly equipped with education nor primed by practice to adapt to solitude. 

For most of us, the fast-paced life is what we are used to so staying home with limited movement has become as difficult as learning to write with an untrained hand in old age. For many still, we have lost all ability to hold conversations without the help of computer mediated technology. We are now struggling with the propinquity of face-to-face interactions because in organic conversations we can’t speak shortcuts. We are uneasy because our faces don’t have the emotional range of emojis readily available on WhatsApp. We are bored to death in lockdown because we have realized that 280 characters are not enough to keep important conversations going. In a sentence, we have realized that our touch screens have made us lose touch and social media has succeeded in making most of us antisocial. 

Despite the circumstances, I believe there are many good things we can hold on to. On a personal level, we now have an incredible opportunity to nurture relationships that are important to us. But for this lockdown, some parents would not be home with their kids for an entire day and some couples would not retire to bed at the same time. As weird as it seems, situations have forced us and we have had to comply. The sudden outbreak of the coronavirus has taught us that other things may change, but we start and end with the family.

Another positive is that we are learning to communicate with one another. The renowned playwright George Bernard Shaw once said that the single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. How right he was! For many years we have been talking at one another, talking past one another and talking across one another and assumed, rather mistakenly, that we have communicated. When someone asked Yogi Berra how much he enjoyed an outing, he responded that it was impossible to get a conversation going because everybody was talking too much. In that simple epigrammatic statement, he reminded us that talking alone doesn’t complete communication. We must also listen; especially to the words that are not said. How well have you been listening to those around you now?

Perhaps, more importantly, this lockdown is teaching us how to enjoy our own company. Even though we deplore the situation, it offers us an opportunity to be alone – not lonely – with ourselves. You can use the occasion to reflect and bring a hand of order on your life when we return to the maelstrom of routine. You can read good books and enjoy refreshing conversations with fine minds through the ages. The great thing about good books is that they have uniquely portable magic. They can take you places without any need of breaking the lockdown directives.  

I believe they are many good things you are also discovering during this lockdown and I would be glad to hear about them. Please feel free to share. You never know who you will be helping.