Working Through the Quarantine

Wow -- these weeks have been strange. I probably should have tried to chronicle them better in writing... and I should have been using this blog more...

But for the most part these days in "self-isolation" aren't that different from long stretches of my summer vacation, in which there's not too much on each day's agenda, and I working on writing projects.

The main difference is the prevailing sense of doom and death from the outside world -- and perhaps more to the point -- from the media.

Of course, I don't have oodles of free time. I'm still teaching my classes. I'm just not in class. The second half of the semester moved online. I'm doing my best to keep it interesting, but I know most of the students are disappointed. I know I am. I miss those guys!

I've been making a lot of YouTube videos... I'm still waiting to find an audience... and still experimenting with the content I want to produce, or at least that I'm good at producing.

I keep thinking about working on some kind of memoir project. But my life isn't that exciting, so I'm not sure if it's just me wanting to navel gaze. No, actually, I'm sure that's what it is. There are so many things that I've tinkered with, part of me wants to stop making new things and just do a retrospective of all the little quirky things I've worked on during the last four decades.

But then another part of me says, "Hey Wade, shouldn't you be working on something new? Something good? Something that approaches excellence? There's not that much time left."

Of course, all this angst is so inconsequential to everything else going on in the world. It does keep me distracted, though, and I appreciate the distraction.

The Bradford family is alive and well. My youngest daughter is still in her dorm at college, but should be coming home in just two weeks. My wife is still working as a health coach. My eldest daughter is working online. She's teaching online -- but doing it in a way that is far more spectacular than I could ever endeavor.

Whoever may be reading this, I hope you are well and that you are safe.

Take care.