We are approaching the seventh day in lockdown in South Africa, an effort to combat the novel Coronavirus pandemic that has the world on its knees. Africa has just recently joined the war, preceded by economic world powers like China, the UK and the USA. Only essential services are permitted to work. With all the time that the ‘stay at home’ campaign has presented us, I could not help but to observe the different human reactions.
I recently came across a video that has gone viral on social media of a middle aged man, on his couch whilst paging through a magazine. As he turned the page, he would see something attractive on that page, he would proceed to ‘pick up’ this imaginery thing from the magazine page and place it in his mouth. Repeatedly he did this as he was paging. I call this doodling to pass time.
The video brought back chilhood memories when we would play a similar game. In my childhood version of this game, there would be two or three players. As we turned the page, we would claim items or objects contained in the magazine as ours. The first one to point at an object and claim it, owned it, there were no arguments there. There was no keeping score or declaring a winner. However, by the time you were finished turning pages of that magazine, you knew if you were walking away with most of your ‘imaginary possessions’ or if you needed to point and claim faster next time. You just knew.
The lockdown has blessed us with time. People are no longer used to the notion of free time, or being in their own company. Timelines on social media are filled with cooking, baking and exercise videos and pictures. There are new book clubs mushrooming everywhere. Some people are just doodling to pass time, whilst some are taking this time to do some introspection. Whichever it is, inboxes and direct messages are busier than usual.
It has been just under a week since we went into lockdown. It took a few days for one or two exes to come out of the woodworks. Coupled with a few suitors who fell victim to ‘the one that got away strategy’ for whatever reason. I have always maintained that ‘when in doubt, run’ and quiet a runner I have been. I digress.
These ‘Hi Kela’ or ‘Hi Beautiful’ messages reminded me of that middle aged man, on his couch, eating up all his ‘imaginary possessions’ that he is enticed with on each magazine page. The courage and bravery that it takes to draft that message, reaching out, very aware that the objects contained in that magazine are not within your reach, but reaching out anyway. The joys of being childlike, nothing is truly out of reach. The imagination is able to take you to a different reality where dreams are real, and reality is just a place to pursue those dreams. A place to make the ‘imagination’ the new reality.
Boredom is real. Use your free time wisely 😉