Covid FOMO

An unexpected emotion has been overcoming me: a fear of missing out. Not for concert tickets, a table at a new restaurant or even a backyard barbecue, I know that those things aren’t happening. 

As a creative person I sense an opportunity here, but day to day I keep my head down, and find distractions to keep myself from connecting with my feelings. My previous post suggested ways to keep oneself busy, focused and positive, and I do think that there is value to these pursuits, but one also must make space for introspection. 

I heard an interview with author George Saunders who talked about a letter he wrote to his students on the importance of writers making work to help explain this time. He said:

“We are (and especially you are) the generation that is going to have to help us make sense of this and recover afterward. What new forms might you invent, to fictionalize an event like this, where all of the drama is happening in private, essentially.

Fifty years from now, people won’t believe this ever happened (or will do the sort of eye roll we all do when someone tells us something about some crazy thing that happened in 1970.) What will convince that future kid is what you are able to write about this, and what you’re able to write about it will depend on how much sharp attention you are paying now, and what records you keep.”

As a creative person I want to take up this challenge. I don’t know exactly what will come of it; will it be any good, or meaningful to my contemporaries, let alone future audiences? To be clear, I don’t even know what I’ll do. I suppose that I’ll start taking pictures my (now small) life, and we’ll see where it leads me.

Image: As a disclaimer, the image here is not part of any new body of work. (Or is it?)