Member-only story
Covid time is forgetful time
I just jumped off a phone conversation making the off hand comment ‘Covid time is forgetful time’ — relating to how many balls get dropped at the moment… Yet its more than dropping balls and missing meetings, there is also name forgetting… I cycled for a social distancing meeting with a friend yesterday and we both couldn’t recall the name of someone so familiar to us that it was ridiculous… I also hear people talk a lot about brain fog and lack of concentration…so what’s that all about?
One part of this is probably the blurring of work-home boundaries, the excess demands and surplus multi-tasking. When routines get disturbed and one space gets invaded by another space — it creates confusion. For me the blurring occurs as I mind two under 7 children and try to work full-time to put my business on-line having lost the face-face training work I do. Previously the busy routine of the morning meant a shift of energy after the school drop off, then it was work space until the school pick up. This is replaced by some home schooling, managing the transition of emotions from pyjamas to school desk, constant interruptions as we all try and do our ‘work’ — snack time, checking in time with children and with work colleagues, dedicated outdoor playtime, cooking the dinner and jumping on a zoom call whilst trying to remember to brush the ever growing hair, whilst trying to forensically think through the delivery of an online coach training course… so balls will get dropped!
Yet there is more…. I think many of us are living in a kind of zombie space- real and unreal at the same time. There is constant media talk of death yet many of us don’t see it or feel it- but we experience its shadow all of the time and it drains us. There is something very strange and uncanny about this ‘living in the shadow of an unseen death’. The lockdown has made our experience very parochial and intensely local- literally creating borders around physical family units and virtual meetings with friends… I live in Galway and what goes on in London, New York and Dublin, places I would work and visit, or in rural areas where I would holiday and cycle, is now a mystery, because of the 2 km travel limit and no-visit rules. Before Covid we were in our social media and news bubbles, and now this is hugely amplified. Before we could see, feel and experience a world out there, and now we are…
