Nothing Much to Say

Saturday evening a friend of mine asked me if I had been writing anything , lately. I told him that I had not. He asked me “Why not” and I just replied, “I don’t really have much to say.”  In my experience when I don’t really have anything to say, it’s best to say nothing.

For that matter, the most difficult thing for me about the virus isolation is that I don’t know how to answer, “What have you been up to lately?” as I haven’t been up to much at all.  Add to that that I’m recovering from surgery seven weeks ago and for now I can’t drive. So on days like today, when my wife is working, I’m "stranded" at home. My choices are to read, watch TV, watch a movie, write something or read a book. Today, for a couple of hours I read the paper and for two more hours,  I chose to watch a Netflix documentary. As documentaries go, it was pretty good. I then picked up a novel to start reading when the question, “Have you been writing anything lately” came to mind. So I decided to write.

Personality-wise I’m an extroverted introvert. That means that “introvert” is my default personality, but in a social situation I can be as “extroverted” as necessary. Well, that’s not entirely true, but I try to perk up and participate in whatever is going on. Sometimes I’m more successful than at other times. At this time, I am more unsuccessful than I am successful. After spending hours alone (which is not at all unpleasant for me), it’s difficult to all of a sudden have things interesting to say. This is a constant vexation to the people around me, especially to my wife, who likes for me to participate in conversation even if it’s just with her.  

No one knows how long this Covid isolation is going to last. I try to, most of all, be content that no one in my immediate circle of family and friends has gotten sick. So I try to remember that this time is not mostly about one’s entertainment or social ability. It's about staying well. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are suffering, and thousands have died or are dying from this virus and the isolation it has caused. Those people, and the people who love them, are not concerned about entertaining themselves or worried about being social, they are concerned about survival and just getting better.  For them, “What have you been up to lately” is easy to answer as it has become a matter of life and death. There is nothing entertaining about Covid 19. 

So for now when asked if I have been writing anything lately, I can answer, “Yes.”  It’s still questionable though if I actually had something worthwhile to say. Well, this novel isn’t going to read itself, so I’m going to clean this up, publish it and crack open this book.

What have you been doing lately? You’ve been reading what I wrote when I really didn’t have much of anything to say. But I tried, didn't I? So there.