Proust, Thinking, Silence: What Is Your Brain Doing Different in Lockdown?

This is almost General ChitChat but not quiet a simple reason to talk but a beckoning to think!

With the whole 2020 thang going on, I find myself pondering some small questions, some medium ones, and trying to find a way to phrase the big ones in a coherent fashion (maybe I should just sing them!!)

So the medium question about “Do I have any regrets?” (A: Nope. Don’t even smoke!) has been pushed back from my Buffalo stance of H3ll no!

Which got me wondering what else I don’t know (or missed because I paying attention to the plot of my life unfolding with me in it)?

It is a question for a novelist of immense power. My favs are Proust and Joyce.

This is more of a Proust topic in that I would find myself in Swanns Way losing the thread of the novel as my own thoughts would spiral off pulling my attention with them!

Mere words. Pages would go by and I would have to skip back and reread what I just read like it was a new sentence! Like being hypnotized!

Maybe it is silence during lockdown that has me thinking in tangents like this.

So ATS, any of you find yourself seeking out deeper meanings, more intelligent items to read, your mind drifting to dipping cookies in tea from decades ago... ???

Please, stop. Think. Breathe. I think that this is actually why some have extreme “covid cabin fever”: they have never been alone with themselves.

Is your answer the same? Does it fit or does it seem flippant?

Just some fun with our brains and wondering why language and thoughts are so intertwined that reading literature can make you feel stoned and, at the very least, see the whole world a tad differently!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

they have never been alone with themselves.

I have no problem being alone with myself when I choose to be. I dislike being forced to be alone. There's a reason why forced isolation is considered torture...ironically by the UN...the same UN that supports and mandates lockdowns and social distancing.

a reply to: dug88

LOL!

😂

Actually, that response can be a great example of a slight pause and getting a great point across with humor!!

I have my original, “Dumb @ss”, reaction but also have a elevated one too. Except when the situation calls for me yelling at the dumb # to move as he and his homie try to talk me out of twenty just because the passenger thinks he can (I paused walking because a garbage truck was coming and they thought I wanted to communicate with them!)

But I have also mellowed in having to respond!

That is a new development since. And made wonder (I am still the same and lockdown hasn’t changed me a bit!)

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
(I am still the same and lockdown hasn’t changed me a bit!)

Same here. Maybe a bit more concerned, because some of my friends are truly terrified of this bug.

I'm glad you continue to enrich your mind as I relish coming across your contributions to the boards ... and that's probably why. Me? I'd rather be off in the woods ... doing things. It's what retirement is all about.

Cheers,
Snarl

Its funny, i can only seem to find people still believing the severity of this terrorism op online. Everyone in the free states just seem to be going along the same.

I will never succumb to peer pressure and my breathing will never be obstructed voluntarily. Avoid the evil globalost corporations. They are kryptonite for your dollar/pound sterling.

We did go to the trampoline park, whole family had a blast.

Fortunately for me I am an introvert and misanthrope. The lockdown has actually made me more happy because I can use it as an excuse not to see other people. However, I naturally get pissed off when government tries to limit personal liberty so it isn’t all roses for me.