Surviving the COVID-19 Pandemic (04)

Finding Diversion

Finding diversion is essential in today’s claustrophobic existence.

I’m disappointed when I hear of people across the country that are ignoring the need to isolate the COVID-19 pathogen and move around as if it didn’t exist. I can understand their “so what” attitude. Homo sapiens are social animals. We share common strengths and vulnerabilities that we have learned to manage. We survive because we work together with a social order that allows us to overcome the weaknesses. We survive as a society because the majority dominates the deviant behavior of individuals (see Darwin Awards).

Many of us are sacrificing with the goal of surviving the COVID-19 pandemic. We are social distancing but still working together. We have a unified objective, and that is to amuse ourselves while we isolate this threat to our health. We are reading, watching tv, communicating, and dreaming.

Dream Therapy

I woke up this morning after dreaming that I was on some sort of an

“adventure travel” experience like the kind that O.A.T. (Overseas Adventure Travel) does. Like most dreams, as we awake all details disappear. I do recall having to wear formal attire for dinner – probably the influence of watching too many British TV shows.

Virtual Travel

The O.A.T. catalog of excursions is a delight to see. They spend a lot of money producing and shipping those catalogs to a huge number of recipients. It is junk mail of the highest order. 

They are selling dreams that are a sharp contrast to our hunkered down existence these days. Wouldn’t it be awesome to be enjoying that dream travel adventure today in a world without a coronavirus?

I Love TV

Please don't tell my kids. 

TV shows are very good diversions. Although binge watching is a difficult concept for some of us, juggling the plots and characters of a handful of series and films is not. Last night we watched “Doc Martin” and “The Hour” on Acorn TV.

We stream from a number of resources. I had signed up for the free trial of Acorn through YouTubeTV because I like how we can access so much on demand with a reasonably easy interface. That Acorn free trial was for 2 weeks followed by a subscription fee of $6/mo. However, when I couldn’t find season 3 of “Jack Taylor” from that access portal, I began to look around. To my delight I found that Acorn TV had a better offer through Amazon Prime – a full month trial period, and a subscription fee of $4.99/mo. Wish I could understand Jack Taylor's brogue, but there's nothing like saving a buck!

Challenges

Now is not the time to let down our guard. These challenges are what keep our minds active and functioning at a high level.