Constricted days — too many people I know well have been struck by Omicron. The only thing I can do to fully protect myself is to retreat to our apartment or wander aimlessly, avoiding most interactions. Everything else is risky and makes one susceptible to the omnipresent virus. Omicron is now the dominant variant of the virus in the U.S., with the new strain accounting for 73 percent of new cases in the last week, and 92 percent of cases in the New York area.
I’m struggling to go on in a world where one’s choices are severely limited. I take short walks to shops and to Washington Square Park with my wife, but do little else. For the moment, I am not traveling to other parts of the city, so the world is geographically much smaller. And, of course, most human contacts are by email or phone.
For me it’s a time of low-grade despair, dominated by a benumbed feeling that I am just marking time, and the days have begun to blur into one another. I spend much time watching films, some forgettable hackwork from the past, but some new films of interest, if not fully successful, such as Paolo Sorrentino’s “Hand of God” and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Lost Daughter” to consume the hours and make one think about much more than our collective entrapment.
Other people, including writer Louise Bernikow, have chosen more positive ways of responding to the moment. She writes in a personal piece, “Gratitude,” about what makes living — even now — worthwhile.
“The astounding generosity and care of people I don’t even know and many I do know, recognizing we’re all in this together. People who speak up, protest, write against despicable, cruel, dangerous ideas — the holy warriors. The ability to hold good memories, in spite of everything, and the hope to make more in the year(s) to come.”
Reading her words again moves me to think about the more positive aspects of living in an age where disconnection and alienation dominate. She is right; there is more than desolation, but one has to work hard at imagining and affirming the existence of what remains meaningful.
