My daughter is taking a history class this semester. I don’t remember exactly what it is she’s studying, yet I know it is not New York City in the two thousands. Yet for her final she is allowed to do something regarding her experience during coronagate. Students work will then be put into the archives of her University.

I like this idea.

I just hope everyone writes truthfully.

I hope they write about the highs and the lows, the good and the bad. The lessons that were learned. The things that they missed.

I hope it’s not a bunch of things about how they donated plasma. survived the ventilator or didn’t hoard toilet paper…because in most cases, that would be not exactly the truth…

I have a problem with books that are labeled historical fiction. They brazenly state that they are “based on true events”, yet when I read them…. I know that truth is often stranger than fiction. I also know how often people exaggerate the truth…

The fish was thisssssss big…

The more we retell a story, the more we embellish. We can’t help it. As storytellers, our inclination is to make something interesting. Most of us don’t have the skills to make something mundane into something memorable. So we are prone to adding, subtracting, tweaking…and pretty soon, in our minds, these are how things happened…so twenty years later we don’t even exactly remember that the story we tell is not exactly the truth that was…

When I blog about my situation now, I’m telling you exactly what I’m feeling. If I feel like crap, you guys will be the first to know. If I have a good day, you’ll be the first to know. I’ll tell you if I hoard toilet paper (I presently have a six pack plus two rolls, so I think I’m good) I haven’t donated plasma, but if it turns out I’ve had corona already, I will be on line to do that. As to the ventilator, we all know that if it gets to that point, only 20% of people come off ventilators, so, yeah….Those 20% will have a great story…

So if you do one thing during this historic event, capture your true feelings somewhere. Video, photos, journals, art…whatever your medium is. Leave something for your ancestors so they know what this felt like. Remember, never sharing your feelings is a way of sharing your feelings too… so if you choose not to say anything, it still says something…

Every person’s story matters.

Every person matters.

64 thoughts on “Due- Archives”

  1. Happy Monday, LA! I suppose the only true statement of experience is made while it’s happening, but even that can be subject to personal perspective bias. I can hardly remember what I did two days ago sometimes! Well, we’ll just have to take what we can get. Fiction is fiction, historical or not. But even non-fiction gets it wrong. I’ve proven it to myself over and over. It’s impossible to get it completely right, no matter how much research you do – you weren’t there and people can be irrational in their behavior.

    I didn’t realize only 20% get off ventilators. That’s a daunting statistic.

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    1. That’s the little ventilator stat that’s not being touted. Along with the stat that there aren’t enough respiratory therapists to handle the amount of ventilators that we do have, and that people are being “trained up” to handle them… here’s my thing….people keep saying I should be like all the British in wwII who were hero’s in the face of adversity and I’m basically a wimp….so yeah….I would like for people to show their vulnerability because I think it helps all those who aren’t always strong

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      2. You know, it’s hard not to absorb the negativity. I try, but sometimes if I’m already having “ a day” it’s hard. One of my friends keeps stiff upper lipping me, and I basically told him to #$&* off the other day because I’m tired of the positivity police. Some days are just worse than others

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  2. I agree. I also wonder what to say. If I go out, I encounter surreal situations and aberrant closures. I feel The Threat. Day to day, however, life is about the same. I feel both compelled to write and silly for what little I have to worry about.

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    1. But it’s not silly. To say it’s silly is to diminish you as a person. And that’s not fair. Does it mean that only positive stories are to be told? We all have a right to our feelings….don’t ever think your thoughts aren’t lofty enough…

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  4. I love your statement of “Remember, never sharing your feelings is a way of sharing your feelings too… so if you choose not to say anything, it still says something…” That is resonating with me this morning – time to start writing again!

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    1. All of our stories are good, whatever we tell, whether we post them or keep them to ourselves. We owe it to ourselves to just feel what we’re feeling

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  8. Definitely lots of feelings with this situation we are all in. I used to journal years ago and have thought of doing so again, many times. Not sure what is keeping me from it. Maybe I don’t want to remember this time, but then if you don’t remember, I’m not sure you learn from it.

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    1. That’s exactly it. As people we tend to block out bad (think mothers going through childbirth again) yet, we need to learn and grow and get the right lessons from this

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  10. Interesting what everyone might say or do. I saw a sheet the other day for children to fill out. It was pretty extensive and it was a covid19 time capsule. Something they can write about now and their parents can put away for some future date or maybe a college paper one day..:) Who know..:)

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  14. I asked my eight year old to write something about his corona experience so far. The paragraph started, ‘It felt like child abuse because I wanted to go to school.’ Legitimate feelings and all, but I won’t lie, took some serious restraint not to roll my eyes 🙈

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  17. I have consistently bought a little bit more than I need each time I shop (every week or ten days) to build up a reserve. I don’t buy a lot extra and I always leave plenty for other people, but I am buying more than I really need. I feel a little guilty about it and the shopping/hoarding situation occupies more of my thoughts than the possibility of death.

    I’ve offered people help, and bought a few groceries for people, though not a complete shop.

    All in all I have done nothing to help and, I hope, nothing to make things worse.My part in the history of the Great Pandemic will, if there is any justice in the world, be published under the title “Didn’t do much – some shallow thoughts on shopping from a man who had a surprise holiday”.

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  18. Coronagate! I love that name! I’m not going to admit how much TP I have, or how much stuff I bought this morning at the grocery store, but then I’m only going every 3 weeks and buying for my mother also so….. My friend suggested I start A Corona Journal, but I haven’t….I’m .trying to do some writing on my abandoned murder mystery. I have the plotline summary almost finished. No excuse not to stay home and work on it now. If it gets published some day, I guess I could say I had Coronagate to thank.

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  21. I’m not writing in a journal at the moment – not that it’s something I do on a regular basis, but I have written about difficult times in a journal before. At the moment, it’s a struggle, for I’m supporting a number of people and not getting the good stuff to balance it. I’m aware of being in a serious deficit situation, but I’m meditating daily & sleeping well, which is as much as I can do for myself right now. There’s been some tough sad news (non-virus) as well recently, so I don’t feel I can write about my feelings right now without sinking. Maybe later …

    I do have an overwhelming urge to write dystopian fiction though, which is so not my thing normally, so maybe that’s how it’ll come out.

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  23. That’s a good point. By writing about it now, we’re putting down our honest feelings. When this is over, we’ll be embarrassed to admit that we just wanted to go out to a restaurant for dinner more than anything, and that we wanted to turn on the news just once and not have the virus be the lead, middle, and ending story. We’ll think that is petty, so we we’ll erase that. We’ll just remember when we handled it well: the times we were brave and caring, etc. Which is also true, but not the whole truth.

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    1. We need people to accept that it’s ok to be scared, mad, fed up, whatever. It’s ok to be human. Why do people think they have to be perfect all the time? It’s a bad road if we never allow ourselves to feel things

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  25. Pingback: In the Blink of An Eye! | Nuggets of Gold

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