Had it been said just three weeks ago that this would be the new normal then I’d have said the sayer a crackpot. Fast food is no more; even the mighty Golden Arches are temporarily closed, and chain coffee is no longer available. Pasta disappeared from store shelves several weeks earlier, and still hasn’t shown back up. Yeast too. I’ve always wanted to make bread. Books are widely available for now though, and we’ve had daily deliveries of the likes of Romain Gary’s The Kites, and Uwe Schütte’s new tome on Kraftwerk.
I spent the first week in lockdown taking stock of the situation. The perverse novelty of precisely what was going on was somewhat overwhelming, and served as decent distraction. Disney + and Animal Crossing launched that week too. Week two was spent with Lego. I bought a miniature bookshop derived of 2500 pieces, and crafted a routine out of that, spending two hours each morning, post-government mandated exercise time of course, working on the time-out-of-place building (for the humble bookshop of this ilk was long gone prior to the apocalypse) whilst listening to the radio. I’m a little concerned that the bookshop is a sign that I’m having some kind of breakdown, as it now sits alongside a previously acquired Lego Art Deco picture house that I built some time ago. Am I trying to rebuild the world that matters to me the most in miniature? I’m even toying with suggesting to Lego a vintage workwear store-cum-cafe to complete the trifecta of haunts that I desire the most, should the world never bounce back from this.
Week three is going to be spent reading Proust, which is something I’ve “been meaning to do for years”, but which circumstance and a poor concentration span have successfully fought to defy me of. I’ve never made it beyond volume one of In Search Of Lost Time, but have the complete saga to hand and as much time as is needed. Our time is now Marcel, our time is now. I’m also going to write a bit too.
Prior to lockdown I’d already taken heed of Monocle magazine’s advice to “Live A Gentler Life”, with their emphasis on a slower, more considered way of life a desirable idea. I already had the comfortable lounge chair, the “archive” (a term which I’m forever grateful – it gives a headiness to what my wife had previously considered a distracting and problematic array of books and stuff) and the canine companion, but time was what escaped me. Now, with time the most widely available currency, I’m trying to embrace this lifestyle fully, with the hopes that echoes and habits will follow me back into real-life once the current situation is over with.
Stay safe.
The Glass Family 