Interesting Times

The Sun has reached its zenith by the time I decide to wake up. 

I think of the purported Greek curse- ‘may you live in interesting times’-  as I stretch and prepare myself to live the same day I have been living since mid-March. I grumble as I brush my teeth. A global pandemic that is accompanied by an overloaded healthcare system, inefficient leadership and just everything going terribly wrong is interesting, but only to future historians. 

Finishing with the toothbrush, I walk up to my window. My phone looks at me expectantly, inviting me to pick it up and fall down a rabbit hole of hot-takes and the news. I almost reach for it, but stop halfway. What good has the ‘anxious scroll’ ever done?

I look out the window. I see the empty roads converge and diverge in the distance, the city park in the center of a loose ring of watchful buildings, the swings forlornly swinging themselves in the arid breeze.

Slowly, Apollo inches his blazing sky-chariot further to the west. In the scorching afternoon sunlight, the tar roads glimmer, and the trees sway in the breeze. Not a soul is around. 

I look at the apartment in the distance. I look at its windows reflecting sunlight, trying to imagine what might be going on behind those windows. I count 20. 20 windows; 20 different stories.

I allow myself to open my window. A thick summer breeze greets me. I hear laughter in the distance. The smell of fresh baking wafts up my nose. A child cries. The bark of a dog. I smile. 

I woke up feeling like one of those people running around the streets in superhero movies, except the superheroes were non-existent. But as I look out the window and hear the signs of civilization persevering, I am reminded of a line from a Dickinson poem- “hope is the thing with feathers”. 

Maybe that is the point of interesting times, to watch as, despite everything, humanity continues to carry on. If so, in a weird way, I am thankful for the current ‘interesting times’.