In our new series, Notes from Home, members of our team will be sharing their stories from isolating at home. Here, Senior Content Editor, Charlie Monaghan, reflects on his experience so far.
I’m writing this from home, somewhere that, until very recently, was the sole reserve of my domestic life. As for almost everyone in this country and many more people around the world, though, my home has taken on new and significant meaning in a startingly short period of time.
There’s the very literal reality that home is now my office, or an office, shared with my boyfriend, Max. Our dining table now only moonlights as such, by day it’s a communal desk from where we work and join virtual meetings. We both miss seeing our colleagues and having a pint after work, of course.
But aside from the practical considerations of restocking our printer, as we adjust to spending almost all of our time together inside (there have been some episodes, obviously) I’ve noticed all the essential aspects of home – a place to sleep, eat, relax and be oneself – becoming more pronounced. Home as a place of refuge, of safety, has never felt closer. We’ve always fed ourselves as best we can, but now we’re able to do what we previously disregarded as the reserve of people with too much time on their hands: we’ve got a sourdough starter going, the fridge is full of homemade stock and we’ve dug out our pasta machine from the back of the cupboard. They do say home is the best restaurant of them all…
And without shops, cinemas, restaurants or galleries to go to (essentially the places we spend all our time and money when we’re not here) we’re realising how enriching home can be in lieu. I’m a couple of books down, we’re making our way through our list of movies to watch and Max has just taken delivery of a keyboard to learn the piano. Somehow, too, we’ve managed to repaint the bedroom. In these testing and uncertain times, home is proving a constant, an anchor. It’s a place that we (Max, mostly) have taken care of and looked after, and now it’s doing the same for us.
No one is an island, though – a sense of community, of feeling connected to others, is an essential part of staying sane, at any time. And yet it is the tragic imperative of combating a virus that at a moment when we have the potential to feel at our most isolated and vulnerable, the people who would make us feel better aren’t able to be here, at least not in person. So we, like everyone else, are doing the next best thing, spending large parts of the day holding our phones to our faces, talking to friends and family. Last night we joined 20 of our friends in a virtual quiz one of them put together – something that emulated being in a pub to a surprising degree.
I can’t imagine the long-held laments about social media have many proponents right now, nor much of an audience. In fact, it seems that, for the most part, this is a time when technology as a force for good, as a way to bring out the best in humanity, rather than the worst, is coming to the fore. Just look at how the NHS has already recruited hundreds of thousands of volunteers via their website, and how mutual aid groups have used WhatsApp and Facebook to get organised, ensuring the most vulnerable get what they need.
Businesses are relying on technology more than ever too, and I am in awe at how my favourite restaurants have created new brands, launched websites, changed their offerings and used social media to communicate it all to their communities, almost overnight. If, as we are told, we are effectively in a wartime situation, the morbid truth is that ingenuity and creativity are all accelerated under such tensions – perhaps there is some hope in that.
But perhaps there is hope to be found closer to home too. It’s not an exaggeration to say that, for most people alive today, the experience of this pandemic and its far-reaching implications on almost every facet of daily life will be the most significant thing we live through. Even when it’s over the ways we live, where we work, how we travel and think about health and wellbeing will be refracted through what we are going through now. But we will always need a home, and among all the other more important lessons to be learnt from this, surely there is one about recognising our homes’ abilities to connect us to what we value most in our lives.
Things that are keeping us hopeful and positive:
We’ve been using our permitted one form of exercise per day to take a cycle through central London. Today was to a deserted Westminster via Pall Mall. It took us half the time it would normally, and was far more enjoyable than a usual cycle through town.
It’s in times like this that we realise who is really important to us. We’ve been reconnecting with friends who we really should talk to more often, and catching up with family more than we normally would. A lesson in priorities, I think.
Daffodils. At once a pompous indulgence at a time like this, and yet also a cheerful reminder that spring is arriving outside, and nature’s processes do, and always will, continue.
- 转载自：The Modern House
- 语言：English
- 阅读原文
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发表于 2020-8-4 01:26:38
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