The Show Must Go ONline
Goring-by-Sea · Pandemic Event Time · Driving / Walking / Cycling
TrialsLocation. Location. Isolation.
When the calendar stopped behaving normally, the neighborhood became the destination and Mother Nature became a necessity rather than an amenity.
Close to Home
Mother Nature Is Not an Amenity
Try the outdoor spaces closest to home.
Mother Nature is not an amenity. It is a necessity.
There was certainly no shortage of green space, thanks to the generous amounts of rainfall.
Father Clock Time had been replaced by Pandemic Event Time. We could not change the content or storyline, but we could gamify our relationship to it and step outside our worries.
To be uncertain about these times is uncomfortable. To be certain is ridiculous.
Roll Video
The Show Must Go Online
Intentional Uncertainty
Do Not Let the Times Hijack Your Brain
Embrace the uncertainty. Be intentional about the distress. Hang out with it.
You cannot argue with the present. That is the miracle: a shift in thinking.
Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as though you had chosen it.
What we resist persists, and wasting cognitive energy on the pandemic is still a waste.
COVID anxiety hooks us by selecting a topic that is personal to each of us but universal to everyone. That is how it creates doubt and resistance.
What is deeply personal is universal.
The Acceptance Equation
Uncertainty + Intention + Movement = Usable AttentionDriving over Flying
Understanding the Country at Ground Level
Driving allows the possibility of better understanding the country—its geography, its culture, and historically what it means to be American.
I flew on airplanes from May through July. Instead of remaining in the terrified default state of pandemic ennui, I gamified the experience and moved toward the state I had been afraid of.
I can handle this. Let us go toward this.
Luckily, there were fewer than twenty people on those planes.
Neighborhood as Destination
Do Not Just Do Something. Sit There.
Or, in our case, take a walk and go for a bike ride.
Biking along the strand gained new significance. The best socially distanced recreation might be the neighborhood itself.
This was an atypical English summer: closures everywhere and the show forced online.
Nevertheless, we put down the mobile phones, went outside, and benefited from sunshine and fresher air.
We chose this.
Goring-by-Sea · August 2020
Close-to-Home Freedom
Social Field Notes
Summer Is a Beautiful Week
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