Lockdown, Gap Year or Sabbatical?
Jun. 3rd, 2020 10:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blogcutterDianora has been writing on Dreamwidth about one- or two-year prison sentences. On CrimeReads, there have meanwhile been surveys of "isolation thrillers". "Lockdown" seems to be the term most prevalent in the media. Whether you think of lockdown as a positive, negative or neutral phenomenon depends on your personality, socioeconomic circumstances, self-sufficiency, the mood you're in at the time you reflect upon it... and no doubt a whole host of other factors.
Certainly we're lucky around here, as retired people with adequate income and most of the layers of Maslow's needs hierarchy satisfied. Not everyone has that luxury!
So when I'm in a reasonably upbeat frame of mind, I see the enforced staying-close-to-home as a kind of armchair gap year or sabbatical, with elements of family leave and gardening leave thrown in for good measure: feathering our nest a bit (although we're not planning to acquire any chicks just yet), reorganizing a bit in the spare bedrooms and watching our garden grow. I'm looking forward to being able once again to donate surplus items to Value Village or the Friends of the Experimental Farm book sale (which sadly will not be happening this year).
As far as re-opening strategy goes, I think Quebec is going at it more sensibly than Ontario at the moment. Ontario just seems to be prolonging the pain! Still, Ford now seems to be at least considering the possibility of a regional approach to restoring normality. For people in communities close to interprovincial boundaries, that approach can't come soon enough for me! But even less densely-populated communities well within the province could certainly relax restrictions far more easily and quickly than is currently being allowed. The first thing that needs to happen, in my opinion, is a gradual lifting of the 5-person limit on gatherings.
It will be interesting to see whose viewpoint prevails over the next few weeks.
Certainly we're lucky around here, as retired people with adequate income and most of the layers of Maslow's needs hierarchy satisfied. Not everyone has that luxury!
So when I'm in a reasonably upbeat frame of mind, I see the enforced staying-close-to-home as a kind of armchair gap year or sabbatical, with elements of family leave and gardening leave thrown in for good measure: feathering our nest a bit (although we're not planning to acquire any chicks just yet), reorganizing a bit in the spare bedrooms and watching our garden grow. I'm looking forward to being able once again to donate surplus items to Value Village or the Friends of the Experimental Farm book sale (which sadly will not be happening this year).
As far as re-opening strategy goes, I think Quebec is going at it more sensibly than Ontario at the moment. Ontario just seems to be prolonging the pain! Still, Ford now seems to be at least considering the possibility of a regional approach to restoring normality. For people in communities close to interprovincial boundaries, that approach can't come soon enough for me! But even less densely-populated communities well within the province could certainly relax restrictions far more easily and quickly than is currently being allowed. The first thing that needs to happen, in my opinion, is a gradual lifting of the 5-person limit on gatherings.
It will be interesting to see whose viewpoint prevails over the next few weeks.
