Cape Town's bustling business district and promenade were both eerily desolate on the first day of lockdown. (Aljoscha Kohlstock)
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Cape Town's bustling business district and promenade were both eerily desolate on the first day of lockdown. (Aljoscha Kohlstock)
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If we get through this lockdown with our sanity, our family and relationships intact, then we have something to pat ourselves on the back about, writes Howard Feldman.
As we head towards the two-week "lockdown" mark, I am starting to become increasingly concerned. I am still yet to complete half the Ironman on my patio, have not read even a single page of "War and Peace", and have only managed to upgrade my Zoom skills to being able to click on an invitation link and to hit the mute button at the appropriate times.
I have not learned to write code and suspect that even if the lockdown were to be extended to August 2021, it is unlikely that I would have achieved this.
Contrary to global lockdown rules (posted repeatedly to Facebook), I have successfully managed to avoid spending extra time with my children. We are no more "connected" than we were 10 days ago. And I am yet to discover anything delightful about them that I had not known prior to being locked in a house with them. I don’t have a single anecdote that I can tweet about and find them just as I always did. Although I am slightly shocked (read: appalled) at how much teenage boys are capable of eating.
I am also at risk of becoming a diabetic alcoholic who will need to be removed from the house facilitated by a portable crane. They will need to block off the road and divert traffic, assuming the lockdown will be over, and that cars are once again allowed to drive without a permit.
This is a true story: a friend told me yesterday that he finally got the time to read Dostoevsky’s "Crime and Punishment". It apparently had gnawed at him through his adult life that he hasn’t done so, and now finally he had found the time to do this. He says the wait was worth it. My thinking was that if it was that great to wait so long, I could only imagine how much better it would be had he waited even longer?
Past Sunday, a bunch of people that I know ran marathons around their driveways, swam Midmars in their plunge pools and completed Ironmans on Instagram. All before I had finished brunch. It was embarrassing and made me contemplate some of my own life choices. In response, I have resolved that next week to have breakfast earlier, so that I don’t find myself in this type of embarrassing position again. It might not be easy, but very little that is worthwhile, comes without a struggle.
This is not to say that I hadn’t planned it differently. My bookshelf is bursting with books I mean to read, my exercise equipment (read: Google videos) lies waiting, shimmering in anticipation and my NutriBullet, still in the wrapper, eyes me with genuine disappointment. Thankfully my children seem relieved that I have not focused on them and my sense is that if they are able to exit the lockdown without having spent too much time bonding with me, they will have considered the experience a success.
With all this, lockdown is not easy. It might be less of a challenge for some because of a larger and more pleasant physical environment, it might be easier for others with some form of job security and still more manageable for those who like their fellow "inmates". But none of us are designed to live in one space, with the same people for weeks on end. None of us are above the anxiety that accompanies a failing economy and an uncertain future and few of us will be able to snugly put the worry of a circling and often deadly virus away without impact.
These are scary and uncertain times. And that means that although we might want to write the next bestselling novel, lose 10kg and grow back our hair, the reality is that if we get through this with our sanity, our family and relationships intact, then we have something to pat ourselves on the back about. That is, if we have been doing our stretches and are able to manage that without hurting ourselves.
- Howard Feldman is a keynote speaker and analyst. He is the author of three books and is the morning talk show host on ChaiFM.
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