Of lemons, lemonade and the virus

The stayhome orders continue. So I wondered if anyone has learned of any new ways to occupy their time or that of their whole families. Have any of you found new hobbies? Or revived an old hobby? Anything to distract you?

You know, there’s a saying with which I’m sure you are already familiar. “When life hands you lemons you should make lemonade.” If you don’t know how to make lemonade you should learn to make lemonade.

Think of the lockdown as your lemon and anything you try to do, or take up doing, as your new lemonade. Since our stayhome orders, we’ve been turning to the internet for more and more emotional support outside of the family unit; if it’s not to a professional, it might be to a friend. We’ve also turned to the internet for ideas on how to pass our time.

To be honest, if you’ve been instructed by your company to work from home until further notice, that lemonade has pretty much already been made for you. You are occupied with work related activities you would already have been doing during your normal working hours, had you been physically at the office.

But if you don’t work or lost your job, either as a result of the virus or long before that, and you don’t have kids’ activities to take up your time, you might be, as they say, “climbing the walls”.

But I hear that this might be the ideal time to force yourself into doing all those things over which you procrastinated. Or into doing all those things that you really wanted to do but were afraid to try. After all, we’re all in this together, as everyone in this world insists on saying.

Everyone is trying to make the most of a bad situation. And now there’s plenty of encouragement around. You can learn a new craft, update your professional skills, learn how to cook great new cuisine and even learn how to make yourself a decent cup of coffee since all your favourite coffee shops are temporarily closed.

I mean, who doesn’t miss their favourite cup of latte or cappuccino? And if you’ve taught yourself a new skill without the help of an online class or YouTube, who knows, maybe you’re wondering about starting your own YouTube channel.

The point is that we are physically confined to our homes. So it is terribly important that the lockdown does not mess with our mental faculties. There’s another saying that the devil makes work for idle hands.

This doesn’t necessary mean that you’re going to do something bad to someone because you are cooped up in your house with nothing to do for twenty-four hours a day for God know how long. It does, however, mean that some people who are mentally frail could either hurt themselves or fall into a state of darkness and despair out of which they could have trouble coming out because of the lack of impartial emotional support.

This whole confinement thing can seriously mess with your head. The one thing you must seek is some form of entertainment to distract yourself from the madness that may be emanating from all the news channels. I assure you it will only freak you out.

My recommendation is to cut yourself off from the barrage of freaky news and only tune in for maybe an hour a day for an update or government guideline that might directly affect you.

Throughout the rest of the day, make a plan of what movie you are going to watch, what Youtube video you will subscribe to. Focus on arts and crafts, gardening, comedies, and music videos. Draw a picture, colour a book, write a poem, write a short story, write anything, and, above all stay away from anything that might remind you of the virus.

Like I said in an earlier column, I no longer watch CNN, BBC World, France 24 or any news channel. I check in once a day to see if there’s anything worth watching and only end up seeing politicians and health professionals grandstanding.

I now have my small sketch pad out and intend to try and draw at least one picture a day. I also pray to God that this madness ends soon.

I do want to end with a question, though. Everyone keeps saying “we’re all in this together” so why does it feel like we’re the only ones affected?