A Triptych on Post Covid Life

Eddy Billard, 2019

Triptych—a fancy art world term used to describe a piece of art that has been split into three. Why would anyone bother to do that? Well, our brains love patterns. On top of that, when something is presented in three parts, it often gives us the space to tell a longer story in just the right way we want to, in a patterned way that’s better remembered by the human mind.

With that, I thought maybe we could make some sense of our Covid-19 journey in a similar fashion. 

Plus, it helps that I already view journeys as consisting of three distinct parts: embarkation, passage, and arrival. And boy, has Covid been a journey complete with three parts: at the end of 2019, we were in embarkation. Then, in the first quarter of 2020 until now, I’d say we’ve been in the passage. Perhaps it’s wishful thinking, but I would like to believe the new world, our post-covid world, is now in sight. Arrival is just around the corner, and I think it’s high time we ready ourselves.

Sticking the landing

Arrivals are tricky, particularly when the passage has been long and hard (as this one has surely been). Sometimes, even when you arrive, it doesn’t feel like you have, (or maybe you can’t quite accept your arrival). It’s a sort of a "Stockholm syndrome", you become accustomed to the journey, and accept the difficulties and discomfort, with your mind thinking, “this passage is just a permanent state of being, now”. 

That’s why I think it’s important to declare your arrival as a way of shaking yourself of any notion of comfort amidst a state of disrepair. 

It’s vital to recognize that the journey is over. It’s time to unpack, and prepare to be here... the new here.... rather than there....the old there. 

When you can do that, you have arrived.

My plan...generally speaking

In the next few weeks, I offer you my triptych; three essays on post-covid life, as a reflection on the three stages of our journey through Covid. It’s my way of declaring my own arrival into post-covid life as I try to make sense of it all (keyword: try).

The last Covid spike (caused partly by the Delta variant) was the hardest part of the entire pandemic for me because I was already gearing for it all to be over. That’s the tricky part of arrival. Sometimes the plane has landed, but you’re stuck waiting for the jetway to be available at your gate. Many of us have been like kids squirming in the back rows, breathing our own recycled air, itching to deplane. We’ve grown tired and impatient of the travel, and of the journey itself. 

But as my mother used to say, "all good things come to an end". Thankfully, this goes for bad things, too. 

All bad things eventually can come to an end. And arrival at the end of a bad journey is oftentimes more difficult to recognize, perhaps because bad can more readily become familiar than good. 
And why is that?

It’s evolutionary, Watson

When we’re surrounded by crisis, we learn to gird ourselves. It’s part of our genetics—responsible for our survival as a species. It’s fight or flight, and it’s not learned, but rather, it’s a natural response to engaging (or not) with predators. So, I don’t blame myself for hanging on to my own fear and sense of self-defense. But at the same time, I need to journey beyond that, toward a more healthy life where I am not constantly immersed in threat and survival.

One way to heal ourselves is to move beyond the incessant background noise of crisis. We can, (and should) prepare for a time when the pandemic does not dominate so many aspects of our daily lives. 

And while many of the ways in which the pandemic has changed things will probably remain, (Zoom calls, getting groceries delivered, the meaning of the word “essential worker”) other things should change so that we can more happily productively adapt to a post-covid world. 

Some days, it will be easy to tell that it’s time to come out of the foxhole. Other days, we will need to be intentional. Habits are hard to break, after all. 

So, here’s how I see it, in the form of three essays.

My three essays

My first essay has to do with one of my most prominent habits, which has also become both a favorite tool and one of my biggest crutches—Zoom calls. It’s my own little house of mirrors. 

The second essay is about my need to rediscover other parts of myself which are not so focused on the individual "me". I wish to re-cultivate my mutual self.  

The last essay is a challenge to me to stop leaning so much on the mantra, "let’s just take it one day at a time," and reacquaint myself with the future—the future has not been canceled, after all.

As with any arrival at a journey's destination, there’s a bit of unpacking to do. And a journey's baggage always contains a bit of dirty laundry.  

But unpacking is not ALL about doing the laundry; it’s also about reorienting away from our journey and acquainting ourselves with what might very well be a new “us”. We are relocating ourselves out of the foxhole, back into the open, and resetting our compass by reconsidering our own true norths. 

Once all of these things are done, anew is an easier place to be. 

It’s all about the way you show up

I have often said that the hardest part of starting is getting started. The same is true for arriving. 
The hardest part of arriving is recognizing that you have arrived. I cannot move on from these last two years and into my post-covid world until (and unless!) I acknowledge that I have arrived. These essays are me, giving myself a good talking-to.

There will be other journeys, God willing. And they will likely be different from the one we are in the midst of concluding. So, let’s unpack, finish our trip journals, rest up, and get ready for a new tomorrow.