Living with constraints

“embracing constraints rather than screaming in pain about them can be affirming; and I think we can handle it. 

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I had a good conversation with a valued colleague last night.  We hadn't spoken in a few weeks and agreed to “have beers” and chat via FaceTime.  He was in his basement office while I chose to do the meeting sitting in my parked car - dormant in my driveway these past weeks.  This at least provided me the illusion that I was going out.  

 We talked about the benefits and challenges of living with constraints; at least from a relatively privileged, first-world perspective.  That is what a lot of us are dealing with now: we can’t do all the things we did just a few weeks ago and a lot of people are having a hard time with it. But living with constraints can be an opportunity. An opportunity to truly assess what you really need and what you don’t. To assess just how pleased you are with what you have and what you have built for yourself to date; including the relationships with the people that are closest to you. Living with constraints helps you identify which of your former set of habits you really miss and need, and which was ... well, simply a distraction; or worse, an addiction.

 One of the other benefits of experiencing constraints is that you don’t NEED to go back to the way things were.  The new normal can be BETTER in many ways.  In fact, we should demand this of ourselves and the world we live in.  I now think that missing the opportunity to make something better out of this would be the ultimate insult to those who suffered or lost during this crisis in a real way. Assuming you can feed and shelter yourself and those you care about, embracing constraints rather than screaming in pain about them can be affirming; and I think we can handle it. 

 We don’t need to go back to buying things we don’t need, we don’t need to flee our homes at every chance, we don’t need to drive our cars all over place, we don’t need to engage in wasteful practices and we don’t need to consume our environment and our time together so unconsciously. Even if some of these things improve just as little bit, I think it will have a big impact.  For my part, despite the real pain in the world right now, I have great hope for our collective future and remain positive.