Working and Lurking (But Not Shirking) From Home

Just over a week ago, I watched Contagion with my girls. Today, both the city and province are under a state of emergency, my eldest and I are both working from home, and my youngest is not only looking at celebrating her 18th birthday without her friends in two weeks, but the possibility of her school not having any graduation ceremonies this year. Our church has discontinued services until further notice, and we are settling in for at least 6-10 weeks of this being "the new normal."

I want to stress: it could be worse. We are not ill, and don't know anyone yet who is (although I expect that to change). The four of us here get along pretty well, and even our modest hovel has enough corners for each of us to find one for ourselves when needed. But it is such a weird time, I feel compelled to describe our current state in order to better recall it later.

Fenya's job with the ombud's office sometimes requires her to participate in video meetings from home, so she has suspended a spare bedsheet from her ceiling with pushtacks and it has done an admirable job of sheltering her childhood room from outside eyes thus far. She will periodically come out to tell people in the kitchen that she is "meeting" a client and request for us to keep the volume down, but that's been about the extent of any home/work overlaps or incursions.

There's no real work from home options for Audrey, but she had spring break coming up anyhow. Getting a few more games and movies in with everyone stuck at home is sounding quite ducky to her, actually. And even Glory is applying grim humour to her situation saying "if we don't have a ceremony, I'm gonna wear my grad dress to Safeway and pick up toilet paper." This may end up being her grad quote, actually.

In order to access my work telephony system, I had to bring home my desktop PC, two monitors, and my mouse and keyboard, as well as two headsets. The offices are all locked up now except for some infrastructure people and a small crew in the mailroom, so it made more sense to have stuff on hand rather than not to. The corner with my home PC is a little crowded now, with my work setup preached on a tv tray right next to me, but it is a simple matter to push back my monitor, bring one over, remove my wireless keyboard and mouse and then set up my work versions.

Accessing some of the games in the corner might be a little challenging, but on the plus side, my headset cord is long enough to reach the recliner next to the desk. This is probably the most comfortable I have ever been while watching a training video.

Still, calling my situation "work from home" is a bit of a misnomer, since the training I need to do the work that my current area (the Member Services Centre) was scheduled to start the day after they announced the building was shutting down. Still, I have enough material to keep me busy until they sort out some way of training us redeployed folk up, including video courses, some assisting with edits on template responses, and going through my previous reference binder ("The Big Book of Stuff, Vol. 1") and sifting the contents for useful nuggets of info.

Socially, we have really tightened things up around here, and haven't had a visitor in over a week. Trips outside are becoming less frequent, although I popped out to the gaming store yesterday for some reference materials before non-essential stores become too hard to access, and to also pick up some groceries.

The grocery stores themselves feel surreal, with fewer shoppers but empty shelves nonetheless due to frantic people stocking up. It was a little eerie when I was there earlier in the week, actually.

And sure, I overstock too - but never frantically!

We have plenty of food, but we need to discipline ourselves not to dash out to the shop every time we discover we are short on some non-essential. It's getting better, and we are exercising social distancing on those occasions when we do venture out.

Between the rumour that liquor stores might be closing, and the possibility of meeting my friends online for some sort of virtual tabletop experience, last week saw my household procure 8.39L of spirits and liqueurs (I gave up beer for Lent, in case you were wondering).and 900+ pages of nerdy rulebooks and accessories (D&D5e and Call of Cthulhu, ICYWW).

This weekend, the family and I found the final island in our game of Seafall, got caught up on some episodes of Picard, cooked a chicken in the Instant Pot (and made soup with the leftovers), and today the girls and I had an immensely successful game of Pandemic. I mean, look at that board: two diseases sunsetted, are you kidding me?

Next up is learning how to use the Roll20 online platform to keep a bunch of us in touch while we stay out of reach. Maintaining those connections is tough when everyone is so busy, but this feels like a great time to reinforce them in another way. Honestly, the game is almost secondary to the chat and general b.s.ing going on around the table, so as long as the virtual tabletop supports that, we will be in good shape I think.

A former colleague forwarded this piece about the importance of reaching out while we withdraw inward:

SOCIAL DISTANCING - SPACIOUS CONNECTION?

How can we play with the space between us in a way that enhances our connection while keeping our bodies safe?

How can we respond to the need of the present situation of the coronavirus pandemic without denying its seriousness and yet without undermining our need for connection? Especially now.

The virus is a global concern and is invisible - we cannot see the virus, every one of us can be an asymptomatic carrier - so we cannot place the responsibility outside of ourselves. Maybe this challenge gives us an opportunity to see ourselves as one body within which we are asked to create together new spaces to keep our bodies and our larger body safe. One of the faces of this is ‘social distancing’ which could be better named ‘spacious connection’ - seen as an act of generosity extending the caring space between us, rather than growing distance from each other out of fear. In spacious connection boundaries are clear and yet the space itself can be experienced as connecting us rather than dividing us. In the unbroken space between us we can hold our heart-ache about the loss of physical proximity and other losses that coronavirus brings to us. And we can be informed by the felt sense of deep care for life and each other - our tenderness towards our bodies and every-body. This space when consciously experienced is filled with the warmth of our indivisible connection. A necessary medicine to keep our immune system, including our social immune system, resilient.

The simple act of washing hands and keeping distance in solidarity with older and vulnerable people in community can be seen as an act of love.

Every smile, wave, every warm hello, every loving note and thought sent to each other - a saving grace. A prayer. A blessing.

Language is powerful. Naming the need for distance as ‘spacious connection’ rather than ‘social distancing' may be a step in turning our world the right way up. But consciously filling the space of necessary social distance with the warmth of our human hearts might be the most demanding work of art we are called to create.

With warm heart and cool distance. Namaste.

Maryla Rose

I hope everyone reading this is taking care of their loved ones and themselves, but also reaching out to family and friends to see how they are doing, especially those who might have been feeling isolated before these COVID-19 measures took place. We will need those connections just as much, if not more, once the current crisis has passed.

In the meantime, I am grateful to be sheltering in place with such cool people, still working, and with ample distractions for off-hours - it really could be worse.