Scientifically, there is no such thing as cold. One is either hot, or simply not hot. There is only heat, or no heat. On a winter day, one can put on a thick coat, make one’s own heat, and be comfortable. On a blistering summer day, one could strip naked and still be sweating uncontrollably. Heat is inescapable , and much harder to eradicate than to create. I think society is similar. You never hear someone remark on how great things have been going lately for humanity. People cling to negativity and the idea of conflict much like heat. Cold, radio-silence, is so much harder to achieve. The twitter feed is never empty.
If you can’t stand the heat, keep out of the kitchen. I often find myself struggling to withstand the heat. Thoughts and people and products move faster and faster. Conflict and climate and combustion or some combination are becoming commonplace in a world where such clashes used to be kept confidential. Some might say that it’s always been this tense, only modern media and technology is making us more privy to these global happenings. If an increasing societal existential dread is only now becoming apparent, as people have more access to tech and news, does it matter how long the world has been heating up for? The unbearable heat isn’t a problem until the air-conditioner breaks.
Yet now, here we are. Sitting in our homes and doing nothing. Air conditioner of daily life now broken, no repairs in sight. Forced into this vacuum of social isolation, social distancing, keeping the hell away from people like most of us already do. The vacuum seems to amplify thoughts and turn one's attitude back on itself. I wonder, as I get up and do the same things in a slightly different order every day of this quarantine, what we will look like on the other side. Will people have longed for the mundanity of every day in their time at home, will everyone be appreciative of the small things? After time stuck inside with a broken A/C, the hot day outside always feels cooler somehow.
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