The “COVID is ruining my summer” weekly update
For those of us who live in Western Canada, summer isn’t so much a season as a couple of weeks in July that we pass through on our way from spring to fall.
After three months of indoor confinement, one might expect anticipation of summer to be higher than ever. It appears the opposite might be happening. Over the past few years, there is a very predictable pattern of social media conversation around summer. This year, summer conversation in May is noticeably depressed. It feels like we are at the starting gate still waiting for the gun to go off.
People are still talking about their summer trips, but last May they were talking about trips planned and this year they’re talking about trips delayed or alternatives to the trips they wanted to take. On the good news front, talk about summer love is up by almost 60% and shallow conversations about the “summer bod” is down by over 50%.
In our neck of the prairie, anticipation of summer manifests in the fervour of patio season. It has been the most talked about COVID policy in the past couple of weeks – provided social distancing rules are followed. But we’ve got nothing on Paris.
We’re all familiar with the stereotypes of Parisians.
o Everyone wears a beret, and it looks good on them.
o They eat the most bread in Europe. Mais non, it’s the Germans. Sacré bleu!
o The fancy poodle is the national pet.
o Progressive Parisian millennials are farming their own snails in small terrariums on their balconies.
o Parisian citizenship requires identifying 8 stinky cheeses in a blind taste test.
o Parisians are the best lovers in the world and always have a paramour on the side.
(It’s funny, when you look at French-myth-debunking sites on the internet, they spend as much time debunking the “great lover” myth as the others. Seems very counter-productive.)
We can add to the Parisian stereotype list “reckless patio lovers”. Their patio rules were relaxed this week and it is as if they’d never heard of social distancing at all.
It continues to intrigue us that we so readily complied with restrictions at the beginning of the crisis, but are increasingly skirting restrictions as we come out of it. Rather than following the rules, we are interpreting the rules to make them personally relevant. And to fit our own desires.
One of the underlying factors is how we evaluate risks that might involve dying (aka COVID). We are willing to accept voluntary and controllable risks far more than risks that are involuntary and uncontrollable. At the start of the outbreak, when COVID was thrust upon us, no one knew what was going on. The risk was involuntary and uncontrollable. We were, very sensibly, risk-avoiding and went into isolation.
Now, we’ve been told that we have some control over the situation. We can wear a mask, stay 6 feet apart, gather only in small groups. The perceived risk has changed and we are willing to engage in more risky behaviour. This is great for now, but what happens if COVID or another pandemic returns?
We dearly hope that there are robust human behaviour studies happening right now. When the next cycle of COVID hits (October they say) our health safety will probably rest on how people choose to act rather than the science of infections. Now that we have learned we can take on more risk, will we be less compliant if asked to stay home? If we think the bad things will only happen to others, but not to us, will we resist public health directions.
While it is safe to travel in-province, we have some exotic suggestions for people who were planning to visit the Eiffel Tower and the bistros of Paris:
We can’t end this update without acknowledging the very serious and important justice marches and peace protests happening across this country. Something for us to think about is that we tend to be far less empathetic towards people outside of our group.
One thing COVID has shown us is that we are all part of one community, vulnerable to the pandemic and equally capable of working together to rise above it. Maybe, just maybe, now that we are part of one community, we will have more empathy for our community members who suffer injustice and be willing to do something about it.
If you would like to contemplate your human-ness, please join us for Monday Morning Meditation – a 15-minute guided meditation this Monday at 8:30am MST.
Just click on our Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/217902912?pwd=Yy9teVcvYTFjVzh4aVdxZFQwdU00dz09
Philip
Fun fact footnote
What isn’t a myth is that the Eiffel Tower gains about six inches in height during the warmer summer months, perhaps to see over the crowds on the boulevards. The famous landmark is mainly constructed of metal which expands in heat. In addition, the top of the tower shifts away from the sun by as much as seven inches due to the thermal expansion on the side facing the sun. Unsurprisingly, we did not see this talked about much in the social conversation around summer.
