Time-change jetlag & virus fatigue
Spoiler alert: this post is not about the header photo, alas. That photo is “just” to remind us that beautiful places exist, and that we WILL travel again. This is Arousa estuary at almost-dawn; Camino de Santiago Portugués, Spiritual Variant on the Coastal route, just before getting the pilgrim boat up the estuary to near Padrón.
Time change jet lag is a real thing. Especially if you aren’t quite prepared –I totally missed the switch on Sunday, couldn’t understand what was wrong with my ancient phone (now alarm clock) that was saying the wrong time, how did it get an hour off? It wasn’t until mid-morning that I noticed time on my computer screen. Duh. That hasn’t happened to me in many years, and may be (or maybe not) just another sign of this unsettled year. BUT this twice-yearly confusion may end next year. Europe has tentatively voted to stop switching back and forth, though I think that has not been finalized, nor which schedule to keep. I think the citizen preference (as shown by survey) is to keep summer time. But whether that becomes reality or not is another thing.
Another real thing nowadays: coronavirus fatigue. As in, wishing this were over and restrictions a thing of the past. Alas, that isn’t going to happen soon. So trigger warning: if you have this kind of fatigue, skip these paragraphs, actually you can skip most of this post (sorry), am feeling the need to vent a little.
Sunday’s news was that Spain is going back into a State of Alarm. Not as alarming state as in the spring, when we were basically under house arrest. At least for now the biggest thing is (was) country-wide curfew, 11pm to 6am, to be broken only for some specific situations. The “was” is because the national government almost immediately rolled back that nation-wide mandate, allowing regional governments to continue to do their own thing. That change was probably due to political pressures and will allow laxer or lazier regions (as well as regions doing ok on contagion) to not get tough with party-people, who are driving the current surge. We’ll see how these new restrictions work. They need to get tough on infractions, and get serious about contact tracing and testing. Two things high on my wish list right now? For governments from federal to local to STOP political wrangling and take some effective action. Other thing: really, really wish they would enact a tough ban on smoking in public. Many maskless people energetically expelling smoke with their possible germs, anywhere outside? No. Just no.
Along with virus fatigue and political wrangling in more countries than just Spain, it seems that people are pondering what the pandemic will do to society as we knew it. Even as we yearn for a pre-virus time, it’s hard to imagine anything as previously normal as a crowded local fiesta, blowing out candles on a birthday cake, sharing a table with strangers at a traditional restaurant. At least hard for me to imagine, maybe it will return, or not.
But for sure we are in for some changes. Looking at history, the medieval plagues that ravaged European population in the 14th century contributed to ending the feudal system: fewer serfs and servants so their employers had to entice them to stay with better conditions, leading to social and economic changes that ushered in a (more) modern era.
We won’t lose 75-200 million people this time around. But our interconnected world will be altered in many ways. Greater minds than mine are already pondering or avoiding pondering these issues so we won’t know for a while what will happen to work, education, travel, socializing. Some changes will just evolve, others may need active legislation or militant citizen action. Some changes may even be positive, others not so much. Unless we are aware and ready to participate when possible, everyday people will probably be more observers or participants than shapers of those changes, but there may also be other, more personal changes.
One obvious change is having less social contact. Nowadays it’s mostly live-in contacts, or a select “pod” for people who have chosen that option. Kids doing distance learning don’t get the shared learning experience of an in-person classroom, adults don’t get the water-cooler time for exchanging ideas or networking, nor the hanging-out with friends over a coffee or beer in a bar-café some time during the day.
And for sure we get a lot less of the contact with random people, whether it’s people watching from a park bench or rubbing elbows in the subway. Because nowadays, random is especially unsafe, right? From what I’ve seen in the media, social scientists are pondering this – humans are basically social animals, and not having enough social contact is not a great thing. It’s unclear what this will do for adults, let alone for kids. Even those random contacts are apparently important as a kind of window on other lives or a world of possible new friends that we can no longer enjoy.
For sure I notice this, and I’m more introvert than extrovert, and not especially obsessive about germs, enough to stay safe, but not obsessive. It must be a thousand times more challenging for people who are obsessive or who are at high risk. And extroverts must really be suffering, or if they are out getting their people fix, they are more likely to become infected and spread the virus. Alas.
And it may be a strange feeling when we can go back to something more or less like what we had pre-virus. There was a lot of carefree trust back then: will we get that back?
The other big change I’ve been noticing recently is how to communicate while wearing a mask. We’re only seeing half of a face, so we’re not getting all the facial clues we used to get (and of course for the deaf or hearing-impaired it’s even worse!). But…. I read an interesting article about women who cover their faces for religious reasons, and they say that it isn’t an issue to pick up those clues. We just have to be more observant of other people, and if we are trying to transmit non-verbal information, we need to work on our own communication skills, better use of eye contact or body language or whatever.
Sorry this is rather negative. I am soooo ready for this situation to improve. I really wanted to travel a little this fall, but that probably will not happen. But I’m trying to hope for the best – and leaving you with a balcony banner from the spring lockdown, already shared on Facebook but good enough to repeat. “Conseguir” can have many shades of meaning: get, obtain, achieve, etc. Best translation for this hopeful banner in this situation is something like “We’ll manage this” or “We’ll make it through”.