The benefits of navel gazing

Life used to be about fitting in, toeing the line or being normal. Now that the idea of normality has been turned on its head these idioms no longer apply. Identifiable outside reference points that stood as markers charting the course of life such as going to school, work, on holiday or travelling to ‘that place’ for ‘that reason’ have disappeared. All the recognisable choices in life have gone to be replaced with long bouts of time in a space called home that was only ever meant to serve as a respite between long hours at work, but are confined there now with our spouse, or family, or alone, or perhaps wishing we were alone.
Home has become the workplace.
Traditionally the workplace was part of our life that separation could be found from, a much needed separation to have a boundary between what we did and who we are.
Life was - work life, social life, home life.
This of course is a simplistic view of a diverse structure that worked in a myriad of ways for untold amounts of individuals. Some people have always worked from home, or irregular hours, or travelled for work, or didn’t work at all, or any number of combinations but in reference to the now extinct idea of normal I have focused here on the the strongest narrative played out within the collective.
So we sit, we stay, we wait.
We wait for so long that some of us have become scared to leave the confines of our new world where we have become imprisoned by a fate unknown. Doing our bit and playing our part for virtuosity and vitality. Hunkering down in the shrunken version of our lives and bonding with technology while new relationships are formed with the shadow deep inside.
For some it’s been a great time for reflection on who and how and what, or for some just time for catching up on their favourite TV series. After living in the rat-race with only a monkey mind as a guiding light this has been a gift of time for introspection, it has been a revelation for some, for others it’s been an opportunity to self-validate on social media. Free from the structures that gilded the constructs of the everyday there has been time for gestation of hopes and dreams that before were only vague thoughts with no possibility of realisation, or maybe it has just served as extra time to indulge in some online shopping.
The choices are many when it comes to making choices that affect only ourself, there is no right or wrong that another can determine because we alone have to suffer the intimate choices that we make for ourselves. High on the list is the choice to defer our decision-making to another as a left over habit from the normal life that has faded into the past. In that world overworked and overwhelmed we accepted decision-making on our behalf with some relief from behind weary eyes while mentally planning the next morning’s commute. Those decisions though affected more than ourselves which meant stretching to consider him and her and them, but left alone at home there’s only you and you alone with no need to stretch outside of the self. It’s easier to keep up the old ways and seek answers outside of ourself, but looking without and looking around nothing is recognisible.
Better the devil you know is a great old saying to embrace when challenged by the unknown but what to do when the devil has disappeared and only the unknown remains?