Hey Listies,
Hello to my new subscribers!
I’m not quite sure what wave of quarantine we’re in but all of Denver’s new restrictions are taking me back to the mindset I had at beginning of the pandemic.
When things started shutting down, I made a big list of
things I wanted to accomplish in quarantine, primarily new knowledge (mostly via
MasterClass) and cooking/baking experiments (made an Oreo cheesecake and naan, each for the first time last week).
I should add that I’m not creating this list to force myself to be productive or to give myself any hard deadlines — it’s just my way of staying sane by feeling like I have some sense of control over my life right now. 😂
It seems fair to assume that it’ll be at least a few more months before some semblance of normalcy has the chance to return (thanks to some promising vaccines!), so I’m updating my initial list of quarantine goals to be excited about getting through the winter.
One of my pandemic goals was to read all 1153(!) pages of The Stand, Stephen King’s magnum opus.
It’s about a deadly virus that takes out >99% of the population, leaving survivors to deal with the fallout and an epic battle between “good” and “evil” (which don’t seem like entirely the right labels…).
Here are some spoiler-free thoughts I had while reading:
- In life, people tend to choose sides and the choices they make can be polarizing to those that don’t agree with them.
- That said, the differences between (most of) the people on each side in The Stand are so small almost to the point of being insignificant. They are more similar than they are different. We are all human.
- Stephen King’s message seems to be that organized society is what forces people to take sides. It’s interesting to ponder, if unhelpful.
- It might be useful to learn how to hot-wire a car and electrician basics (plus piloting and how to be a doctor if you have the time) in case society ever shuts down. Same with first aid and pharmaceutical basics. The list goes on, since you can’t count on other people to retain specialized knowledge when 99% of society is dead.
- I don’t think I would make it long in a post-apocalyptic world.
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The battle between good versus evil, or at least dealing with chaos, never really ends. And there’s never really a winner. But that’s no reason not to take a stand.
If you’re looking for a timely pandemic challenge, I’d suggest getting a copy of the complete & uncut version of The Stand.
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