AliceFraser
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Inside and Alive: Laura Davis!
🕑 Added 2020-08-12 16:07:23 +0000 UTCHallo lovely friends - if you missed it, after a little break, I’m doing the video things again for those of you who are interested.
Here’s me chatting with Laura Davis about cuticles, symmetrical sinuses and owning furniture.
You should be able to watch it even if you don’t have an instagram account - let me know if you can’t, or if it has obnoxious pop ups or something.
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And now, some thoughts
I hope you’re all well, all over the world, where you are. It’s odd to think that more people in the world are worried about the same thing than ever before in history. Because of ever growing access to information, because of the nature of a global pandemic, we’re all looking at the same moon. Or meteor. (Whatever it is, it’s a metaphor because the earth is round so we can’t look at the same moon at the same time unless we have a complex array of mirrors, or a live stream of the moon.)
I’ve been talking to a lot of unsettled friends recently, uncertain of the future. It’s one thing to know in a more or less theoretical way that everything’s changing all the time, with age and people shifting out of your grip over time and that you have no control. It’s another thing to be riding the current bucking bronco of change on the edge of a cliff of information teetering above an ocean of overextended metaphors. That’s a different level of feeling not-in-control.
So since we can’t get a handle on the future, we think about the past, or get stuck in the momentary and petty.
What’s happening to us? Have you made any of the right decisions in life? Why are you here? Why now? What next?
Why is everyone so irritable? Why is everyone’s irritability so annoying to me right now?
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Aisha Tyler said in a talk at the LA podfest in 2014 (it was probably a podcast, but I can’t remember which one, even though I remember her saying this), that post apocalyptic fantasies are so silly because there are apocalypses happening all the time. You think the people in Haiti aren’t in the post-apocalypse? (I think it was Haiti - she used other examples as well, but Haiti stuck with me).
A peculiar thing about the pandemic now is that it’s happening to everyone, everywhere. In every country, in a way that war never did. Except also, while everyone’s affected, most of us aren’t able to see the danger. We can only see the response.
Like... in a zombie apocalypse, you see the zombies walking in the street, and so the anti-zombie precautions are fairly uncontroversial. Though I guess there’s always someone who wanders away from the group without their shotgun, or hides their zombie bite and goes to a party because bites are a MSM conspiracy.
We chafe at lockdown, or not being free to travel because we’re mostly not at the hospital, watching the suffering that would give a reference point to situate our own by comparison.
Numbers on graphs don’t really cut it, and almost every other pathway for understanding is multi-vehicle-incident-two-way traffic-jam-gridlocked with too much information.
Anyway, I’m up late at night writing too many thoughts down, because I had too many thoughts to sleep and I enjoy this space / platform / community.
Xx
A
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Comments
Ben Ward
"teetering above an ocean of overextended metaphors." That really made me laugh. Thank you.
A personal view on Happiness: As I've gradually grown up (still a way to go, though...) many things have become easier as I've practised new skills, gained confidence, and understand at least a little more about the way the world works. Life does have a bad habit of throwing bricks at you, just to avoid getting too comfy: House moves, kids, work pressures, uncertainty, money issues, lack of time to pursue your delights, etc., etc., The Good News is that it does get easier, especially if you gradually build financial security. I'm not there yet, but my earlier and unsuccessful pursuit of the filthy lucre has after a lot of hard work, some risks, and occasional tightening of the metaphoric belt, left me much more secure, and so less stressed about providing for my family. The knock-on effect of that means I no longer have to flog myself stupid just to stay afloat, and I can then relax a little and pursue what makes me happy, rather than just what the family needs. My contentment index has skyrocketed as a result: I'm less stressed by corporate silliness, am able to spend time with my beloved family, *and* take time out in nature and adventure sharing it with fellow enthusiasts. I don't write this to sound smug, though I appreciate that it can come across that way; it isn't meant to. I'm trying (badly) to say that the toil can be worthwhile, and it does get better and easier. For some of us slow learners it can be a long and rocky road, but the message is: keep going! As one progresses on a life journey, many new and wonderful opportunities and experiences open up, provided you can keep a good lookout, or take steps to make it happen, and jolly well grasp them when they are there. It can be hard at times, but you can look back without regret, and enjoy the world in all its wonder. Peace, love and best wishes, and keep on with all that you do, Alice !
Very well said. The invisible enemy makes it so hard to contextulise the changes constantly happening all around. Maybe that's why people are so irritable, everything feels different but we can't emotionally reconcile why?
