Happily Hunkerin’ and Hardly Hankerin’!
I really am so happy to be home with plenty of time to write, I’m beginning to lose patience with all the folks who are complaining of boredom and resorting to mindless games on Facebook to pass the time. I know that’s not one bit fair, so I gave myself a mental exercise that might help me follow the advice of Robert Burns: O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us. To see oursels as ithers see us!
What if things were the other way around, and for some reason inside living spaces were off limit? I could go to restaurants and to movies and to concerts and coffee shops, but I couldn’t go home? I don’t think I’d be very good at that. I did live ‘out of a suitcase’ in Europe for a year in 1958/59. But I was a lot younger then. And it was a choice, not a have-to.
Thinking about it did make me realize how thankful I am that I can find an infinite number of things to think about, to explore, and to marvel at right within my own four walls. And with the help of the internet, there is no dearth of entertainment and “outside” stimulus. When I’m feeling extroverted, I can easily reach out to friends and even strangers via Facebook or Skype or email. And if I’m feeling Greta Garbo-ish, I can find plenty of solitary pursuits.
So, life could be much, much worse, at least at my end of things. I hope all my friends are finding similar ways to made that lemonade. I think we’ll be drinking it for quite some time.