Dis-Ease
This is a spoken word I performed at the 2021 Lumikhâ Art Showcase, hosted by UniPro Texas.
(Trigger Warnings: Covid-19, Death, Mental Health and Illness)
A year ago, in my shoebox sized apartment, during the silence of rush hour,
I felt it
It was everywhere and nowhere at the same time
because I couldn’t see it
But it was there
The pandemic.
It’s been there for a long time actually!
Not just with me, but with all of us.
Even behind the safety of your screens.
I can hear the sound of your screams.
For you see, I am not referring to Miss Rona.
No no, if that’s what you were thinking of, I need you all to take the L,
(as the kids say these days)
And open up about the big L: Loneliness.
It is a pandemic that was with us before many of you even knew what social distancing was
And it’s a pandemic that will continue to kill us, long after we get used to an extra shot in our arms every year.
Lonely
Ness
What is loneliness?
It’s that feeling when you’re lying in bed.
It’s that feeling when you’re left on read.
It’s that feeling
When you have things left unsaid.
(To no one in particular.)
It is on social media, our most connected, where we are most alone
In our cars from point A to B of our increasingly isolated lives
The melancholy feels so overwhelming at times
it’s like you could break out into hives
Unfortunately, like literally everything else, the Rona has only amplified the screams our lonesome selves make
As we go from one video call to the next
As we learn to fear those who get just a bit too close to us in line
As we lose the motivation to reach out and make new friends who we may never end up meeting
A pandemic of truly unfathomable proportions
And if you thought being lonely was bad,
Much like 2020, it only gets worse
Chronic loneliness is apparently as bad as smoking a pack of cigarettes per day
Too bad they never declared a war on that!
(Don’t give the FBI any ideas though, MLK Day was literally this week!)
So what can we do about it?
To be honest with you all, I kind of hate the meme
About 2020 being The Worst Year Ever™
Because while 2020 did suck in many ways,
Many of the issues it contained have been going on literally forever
And will continue in this year undisturbed or even worsened
The same goes for the loneliness pandemic
So what is to be done? What can we even do?
…I’m gonna level with you all, I’m just a mediocre millennial,
and I’m not the sharpest crayon in the happy meal either.
So take what I have to say with a grain of pink Himalayan salt.
That said:
Lonelivirus, just like Coronaness, is fundamentally a public health crisis. It’ll require a whole of society effort
Easier said than done though, right? Well, just because Joe Biden won’t bring about the end of capitalism, doesn’t mean there’s not something all of us can individually do that will make a collective difference
Doing our best to wear facemasks, wash our hands, social distance, and quarantine isn’t just good for our own wellbeing, it protects our neighbors, relatives, friends, and more
So I ask you all to make one final New Year’s Resolution with me this year to do one thing to bring about a New Year’s Revolution
Be more open, transparent, and vulnerable with the people in your life when you’re experiencing loneliness.
It’s nothing to be ashamed of, and all the more courageous to reach out to others in spite of it.
Educate others that it’s completely normal to feel lonely, especially in today’s society
Like hunger, it’s just your body reminding you of something crucial you need to keep surviving and thriving
So embrace that feeling as you will one another, once it’s safe to do so.
After all, there’s only so much time we have left before we’re all dead
So please…don’t leave me on read!