Language is evolving as we grasp for ways to express pandemic life. People are not only staying in, but hunkering down and practicing self-isolation. We’re actively engaged in social distancing so we can flatten the curve. Some are suggesting we crush the curve…
We’re instructed to stay in place or pause, but officials are avoiding the term lockdown. They’re not telling us to shelter in place, but we know we should. Andy Beshear, the soothing and reassuring governor of my state holds daily press conferences where he repeatedly reminds us that we’re safe at home. He and others are finding ways to soften the harshness of pandemic language, all while communicating the gravity of the day’s developments.
My six year-old nieces tell me about boredom during the quarantine and explain that they don’t have school due to the sickness or the cor-on-a-vir-us. My four-year old nephew seems very happy to be home with his family. He told me that his teachers aren’t at school right now.
Friends in France tell me about their gestes barrièrs (barrier actions) and the effet barrière (barrier effect) that results from maintaining physical distance. They know they must lisser la courbe (smooth the curve). France’s shutdown is called le confinement, and social media is buzzing with tips for confinement cooking, confinement reading, and entertaining kids during the confinement.
It is clear that language is shifting. Which terms will stick? What linguistic changes have you noted? As you practice social distancing, how are you passing the time?
I’ve passed the time drawing nudes — my friends’ nudes! I asked for them to send me photos that I could draw, and the only stipulation was that the photos must show me what is beautiful to their own eyes. The result was that I received several nude selfies all revealing their respective posteriors. I am happy at home, working out, striving to eat regularly (although I have lost 5 of the 15 pounds of muscle that I had gained before le confinement began), writing, and exploring my neighborhood from the safety of my vintage, pink Schwinn. Though this “new-normal” of “social-isolation” has had a drastic effect on my love life (I had just met someone that I really like — it seemed like it would be the first serious relationship that I have ever had), I am still hopeful for the future. None of this is new to me — many of those days that I missed class, I was cooped up in my room starving myself in self-isolation. Now that self-isolation is necessary, I hope to make the best of this do over and use it to build myself up rather than break myself down. I find it very difficult, and by it I mean a whole slew of things — confronting the “new normal” (although it doesn’t feel very new to me), dealing with the linguistic shifts taking place, pondering my future, to move on from… but in doing my art I am very happy. I hope that from this I will be able to finally start making my art professionally. I neglected practice art all throughout college until I that last class — “On Beauty” — and the daily meditative practice brought me to start drawing again. Now more than ever I am thinking about beauty. Beauty is my medicine. Beauty is my religion. Beauty is my hope. Beauty is my future. Beauty is my past. Beautiful is the present. I hope that you stay safe, and I hope to see more posts like this. I was dazzled by the counterpoint of its simplicity of form with the density of its meaning. As always, I neglected to use paragraphs. P.S., I’m rereading Proust.
Antoine, je suis toujours ravie d’avoir de tes nouvelles! Contente de savoir que tu fasses un effort de te nourrir suffisamment, que ton art continue à évoluer et que tu t’occupes de toi pendant ce moment inouï dans notre vie! La beauté me guide aussi en ce moment. Bisous—Allison
Allison, mon mot est ‘rituel’ pendant ce confinement. Nous utilisons aussi ce mot ici au Québec. I find that everything can become a ritual if we take time and if we enrich it with powerful intentions. Makes taking a bath, cooking, entering the house after food shopping, meditating become more meaningful. So my word is now ritual.