Everyone I know is somewhat tired of staying indoors and having all the time in the world to do nothing. Some people are so bored to the extent that they are ignoring the official advice which demands that social distancing should be practised—thereby risking their lives to visit friends and family, and to even go to the beach.
It’s absurd that even in the face of the daily increasing coronavirus deaths and infections, sane people are ignoring expert advice meant to protect them and the vulnerable in society. They simply want to go out, to see friends and others want to return to their jobs which they probably hated.
Before coronavirus disrupted our world, many thought it would be wonderful to not have to work and sit in the house every day, to watch Netflix or indolently stay in bed for days. We didn’t have this, so we wanted it so much.
Finally, when what we always wanted arrived, cushioned by government salary handouts in some countries, we’ve suddenly realized it’s boring and actually doing nothing even makes you more tired than doing something.
My mother and sister say they are bored to death. They are tired of watching movies and they cannot also sleep since they’ve slept so much already. It’s like a punishment for almost everyone I know.
Two days ago, my friends called that they wanted to visit me over the weekend. I told them to stay in their house. Three of them live together, yet they are collectively bored. There is nothing interesting in my house—they just want to leave their house, and go somewhere.
I’ve been thinking about the above; why do we all seem to be tired just after a week or so of lockdown, even when we have at our disposal a wide collection of films and TV series, and also the internet?
And I’ve come to the conclusion that, it’s not the freedom to not do anything that we all so much hate right now. It’s the fact that our freedom to do something (to freely move around) has been restrained. That’s how the minds of human beings work—the moment we lose something or are prohibited from doing something, we suddenly begin to cherish or seek it more.
It was ordinary for me to go to the park. In fact, I hardly ever go to the park. Now that I am not allowed to really go to the park, I so much want to go to the park.
We take a lot of things for granted as human beings simply because we always have had the option to have those things. Now that we don’t immediately have a right to free movement, this seems to have become the most cherished, for all.
Perhaps, when this whole lockdown is over and now that it has shown us how we take certain things for granted, we would begin to appreciate more the fact that we can freely move or travel around—and also small gestures like walking down the street and handshaking will now be treasured.
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