I think its safe to say that 2020 was a year like no other in many ways. Filled with extraordinary challenges and highs and lows, the global coronavirus pandemic has changed life for nearly all of us in innumerable ways. Restrictions on activities and lock downs imposed by governments took many forms. For months the issued restrictions on normal daily life were far reaching and imposed serious hardships on many -- from people losing their loved ones, to loss of social contact, to people losing their businesses and livelihoods. For some this resulted in feelings of hopelessness, loss of control and depression -- these mental health issues are finally being recognized by the healthcare professionals but how are they being handled?
During the earliest period of shutdowns, only essential businesses and venues were not shuttered and the luckiest of people who remained employed began to work from home. All of these factors together with the restrictions on local, and international travel often meant at least a period of at home. Lots of people have adapted to their circumstances in inventive ways, while also reinventing their way of life, yet some have not.
happy to have reached this point without catching COVID, in November, 2020, I found out what being ‘confined to quarters actually felt like. Two weeks before Thanksgiving, I severely injured my knee. However, it wasnt a normal injury and the extreme pain I was feeling 24 hours a day for over a month should have been a clue that it was something more.
A December MRI confirmed that I had a diagonal fracture of my left tibia, tear of the meniscus and strained MCL. Whats more, since moving is obviously a necessity, the extra pressure I was putting on my right leg and knee for little use of the left was wreaking havoc on that leg too.
While cursing my own circumstances, I was also lamenting being cooped up in the house even though it was winter. I had already spent many days confined to my bedroom trying to stay off of the injured leg. But, I needed a change from looking at the same 4 bedroom walls as boredom sat in quickly. With help I was able to move downstairs to the den or family room – at least now I was much
closer to the kitchen for coffee, tea or a meal, and much closer to the fridge for the ice packs I needed to dull pain.
Were lucky that we have a den with plenty of light streaming in through the sliding glass doors leading to the patio and yard. The den is oblong and Id furnished and on the whole a very pleasant space. On cold days I love ensconcing myself on sectional sofa and wrapping myself in a quilt to take a nap, read, watch movies, do crossword puzzles, or cuddle with my cats. However, that normal freedom is much different to being necessarily confined to a circumscribed space, even surroundings. The psyche rebels at being confined to quarters no matter what the reason.
Nothing like constricted movement and confinement forces you to assess your situation and take a look at your surroundings with new eyes. Recently I read a short article about Xavier de Maistre, a relatively young French military man and aristocrat who in 1790 wrote a satire or parody entitled, A Journey Round My Room or Voyage autour de ma chamber. I admit that his
style of writing, whether by design or as a consequence of the era in which he lived, very much appeals to me.
In his work he describes his room and the objects therein as if he were on a grand adventure to a foreign land. De Maistres work was prompted by his being sentenced to house arrest and confinement for engaging in an illegal duel. While confined did de Maistre have an epiphany or write out of boredom? Or was it de Maistres intent to encourage us to look at our environs, the familiar, with new eyes and new interest?
Like de Maistre, my confinement set me to thinking about my own surroundings. Like nearly everyone else, we had been unable to travel to even fairly nearby points of interest in 2020 thanks to global pandemic.
