Closer Apart: Unforeseen Coronsequences #1

JasonToon posted some pics said
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The first in an occasional series about the unexpected effects of the global lockdown. This isn’t in any way intended to make light of the real suffering being endured by people everywhere.

I have never liked writing about myself. Some writers use writing to explicitly work out their traumas, relitigate their regrets, explore their inner terrain. Not me. For me writing is a vacation from myself. Of course my own issues and obsessions inevitably emerge, but I am never the subject matter.

So now that I’ve got some precious time to write, the only thing happening is… me spending all day in my own company. TWIST! Now I know how Burgess Meredith felt when he broke his glasses in that Twilight Zone.

Time Enough at Last

But enough about me, let’s talk about me. I’ve spent long stretches of my adult life working from home, and always considered myself lucky to be able to do it. I need my Jason time. When my office shut down, I shrugged. Like, literally physically shrugged. OK, cool, just have to make sure I shower by 3 in the afternoon every day and I’m set.

I soon found out it’s different when you have no choice but to work from home. Oh, and when civilization as we’ve known it is rocked by an unprecedented worldwide disaster. With the time I saved on my commute, I was able to squeeze in even more obsessive worrying about the state of the world and my children’s future in it.

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Then a funny thing happened. See, a few years ago I made the mildly insane decision to move to Australia with my wife and daughters, something I’ve written about here before. It made sense at the time as a career move, and Melbourne seemed like a good place to raise kids.

What I underestimated was how hard it would be to be so far away from family and friends. I’m terrible at keeping in touch, especially when the time difference limits phone or video calls to half the day. And the longer you go without talking, the more the idea is fraught with the weight of a major undertaking, something you need to set aside dedicated time for. So I’d go months without talking to the people closest to me in life, the people who knew me best (my wife aside).

Just this week, though, I’ve had long conversations with my mom, my oldest friend, and my grown-up daughter. I’m planning a video call to work on some songs with another old friend. My wife, her dad, and all of her sisters had a big two-hour Zoom get-together the other day.

We feel less far away from our people than we have since we moved to Australia. Imposed isolation has brought us closer to everyone we care about, because we’re all in the same position now.

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I’m not the only one missing the party anymore. We’re all missing the party. None of us can go hang out with our family and friends, even if they live on the next block. Geography has been suspended for the duration. These electronic connections are all any of us have, whether we still live in our hometown or have moved to an unfamiliar hemisphere. The time difference is now the only difference. For as long as this lockdown lasts, we’re all in the same place.

We’re not on different continents, just on different shifts.

How you holding up, homies? Tell your unexpected isolation story below…