The Next Post
I think I’ve now officially left the Pollyanna phase of our confinement. By which I mean the wide-eyed I can use this as an opportunity period. Easter came and went without fanfare (or chocolate for that matter...we couldn't get it. Rain check on that one). April is being stubborn, leaden and gray as hell. And I swear, if I see another ten-projects-to-do-while-you’re-at-home! article I’m likely to scream my head off.
I know, I know...I absolutely touted the benefits of Time when this all started; and slowing down is indeed a rare commodity in our modern world. But I feel like we’ve replaced one stress with another. There’s an underlying obsession with “performing”—we’ve just moved the goalposts. Personally, I find it terribly difficult to simply...be.
This brought to mind an old French movie I saw as a kid: Alexandre le Bienheureux. It starred Philippe Noiret as a man who loses his (somewhat tyrannical) wife and decides to just.do.nothing. Like, nothing at all. I vaguely remember him spending his days in bed, using a pulley/basket system to get food from friends without needing to move a finger. It made a huge impression on me at the time. The mechanics for one (I was always dreaming up gadgets even if I had zero talent to build them), but also the concept. Laziness as a way of life.
I’m not advocating going that far. I’d go crazy in fact. But if anything, this pause in our lives is revealing a half-hidden truth: that a lot of the pressure we feel every day is self-imposed. Artificial, even. And we do this as individuals but also as a society.
...
Lately I’ve taken to using the camera a little like my dad did, back in the day. Taking a few random shots and letting them sit there, as if waiting for the film roll to be filled instead of importing them straight away. So this isn’t an essay at all but a collection of moments, gathered over the past week or so.
I’m also including some recent audio experimentations as a soundtrack; so much for staying in bed. Paging Alexandre...!
Be safe folks.
P.S That little spot of green on the very last image? Call it time passing…and resilience ;)
