My daughter. I have a 13 year old. She’s with me half the time, so she navigates two different spaces with her dad and me. She’s the most important thing.
What was most important to you before you had to social distance?
I think one of the things that’s really changed for me is cutting out things that feel unintentional. Acknowledging that there are things I did that I don’t need. I’m not printing anything right now, I don’t really need to be printing anything. Small daily life activities that I think are so sediment and we kind of think “oh I need this” but we don’t. Removing things that are out of alignment. Things that don’t acknowledge what seems really valuable to me. Anybody who seems like they’re taking advantage of the situation or treating people as disposable–I don’t have space for that in this social distancing framework.
What’s the first thing you’ll do when this is over?
Probably go to work. Anything that re-establishes human connections like that. Going to our coffee shop–stuff that was part of my daily routine that I just miss. Nothing spectacular like going to Paris, but going to the coffee shop two miles away.
What are you doing to pass the time?
I’m a knitter, so I’ve been knitting a ton. I’m a writer, I just found out this morning that a couple poems I wrote about this are being published. I’ve been writing a ton. Reading a lot. Doing puzzles like everyone else.
What makes you happy right now?
All of those things. Some of the things that put things in perspective make me happy. We have these really obnoxious Canadian geese by our apartment. There was this moment their goslings were walking across the parking lot and I was like “oh my god, I almost missed [it]!” Stuff like that that kind of reminds you that there’s a scope and a scale of things that’s bigger than us.
What would you tell yourself two months ago with the knowledge you have today?
There’s a lot that I can let go of that I didn’t think I’d be able to let go of that I didn’t think I would be able to let go of and not be any worse for it. There are a lot of things I thought I needed that I don’t. I have everything I need. Metaphorically too. There are a lot of things I’ve been anxious about in the past that I’ve kind of been able to say are things I’ve wasted time worrying about. All of the lessons I think I’ve gotten from this are about scope and scale.
