“it was the thirteen day of the month of thirteenth month….” The Simpsons - Treehouse of Horror IV COVID-19 blah blah blah, Quarantine blah blah blah. This crisis is impacting everyone, but unlike a natural disaster or 9/11, its consequences are unique to each individual and family. The level of stress is directly tied to individual circumstances. Are your kids out of school? Is your spouse out of work? Are you trying to keep your small business afloat? Is someone in your family sick?
There is this want to continue the “normalcy of life” that would never be an expectation if we were actually to look at this through the lens of a natural disaster. ("I know the tornado just took away your life as you know it, but what a perfect time for you to learn a new language.") And yet still, kids need to learn, employees need to work, logistics have to move.
Amongst the whiplash of conflicting messages, I have found one trend, one unifying item. Something that everyone an agree on: What day is it?
I have found myself saying “lousy Smarch…” Others have told me “It was day X tomorrow, today is day X, tomorrow will be X.”
It’s a good reminder that time is a social construct. When you break the barrier between work and home, weekends fade away. When everyday starts off as groundhog day, it’s hard to get excited about TGIF. Information from schools, work, cities, states, etc, etc. was bombarding us. Direction would change so rapidly in one day, it had the feeling of a week’s worth of development.
Time is a social structure
There was a time when humans didn’t structure their lives around quarterly earnings reports or Monday morning team meetings. It was measured by the growth of crops and moon cycles.
Why does a week have seven days and not ten? Why do we have 12 months and not 13? Thank good Pope Gregory XIII (and my religious education at Immaculate Conception School for knowing miscellaneous facts .)
Let’s lobby for a Mulligan
So if time is a social construct, and nobody knows what day it is, can we just give society a ‘collective pass.’ Can we have a mulligan for these months?
I say let’s lobby congress for a do-over. Let’s just pretend that April-May- June (how ever long this goes on) just didn’t exist. Then we can add Smarch and Whateverbury and April-X at the end of the calendar year.
Since it already feels like we are living in a Ray Bradbury short story, I say let’s just steer into the curb. Let’s continue the sci-fi trope and come up with fake days and months.
It’s not like anyone will even notice. Because no one really knows what day it is … But I think we are in Smarch already.
There is this want to continue the “normalcy of life” that would never be an expectation if we were actually to look at this through the lens of a natural disaster. ("I know the tornado just took away your life as you know it, but what a perfect time for you to learn a new language.") And yet still, kids need to learn, employees need to work, logistics have to move.
Amongst the whiplash of conflicting messages, I have found one trend, one unifying item. Something that everyone an agree on: What day is it?
I have found myself saying “lousy Smarch…” Others have told me “It was day X tomorrow, today is day X, tomorrow will be X.”
It’s a good reminder that time is a social construct. When you break the barrier between work and home, weekends fade away. When everyday starts off as groundhog day, it’s hard to get excited about TGIF. Information from schools, work, cities, states, etc, etc. was bombarding us. Direction would change so rapidly in one day, it had the feeling of a week’s worth of development.
Time is a social structure
There was a time when humans didn’t structure their lives around quarterly earnings reports or Monday morning team meetings. It was measured by the growth of crops and moon cycles.
Why does a week have seven days and not ten? Why do we have 12 months and not 13? Thank good Pope Gregory XIII (and my religious education at Immaculate Conception School for knowing miscellaneous facts .)
Let’s lobby for a Mulligan
So if time is a social construct, and nobody knows what day it is, can we just give society a ‘collective pass.’ Can we have a mulligan for these months?
I say let’s lobby congress for a do-over. Let’s just pretend that April-May- June (how ever long this goes on) just didn’t exist. Then we can add Smarch and Whateverbury and April-X at the end of the calendar year.
Since it already feels like we are living in a Ray Bradbury short story, I say let’s just steer into the curb. Let’s continue the sci-fi trope and come up with fake days and months.
It’s not like anyone will even notice. Because no one really knows what day it is … But I think we are in Smarch already.