OBSERVATIONS - ARE WE ALREADY DEAD?

“All we can do is move forward, against all odds, into the uncertain future. The past is over, the doors are closed; there's nothing left back there but sentimental ghosts.”
― D Michael Hardy

^{a selfie I took while walking through the Prater in Vienna a few days ago
On this last day of February I went for a walk in the Prater amusement park. It was a nice sunny day during Corona Lockdown. All the venues were closed, save for a few food kiosks. Normally a busy and noise place filled with music and laughter, it was strangely quiet, a dystopian atmosphere.}

THE WALKING DEAD

While I bitch about Corona on social media, I was never into virtual meetings. I prefer to meet in person, contact, touch, hug, laugh, enjoy being with people. Alas I am locked up in my own four walls vegetating, venturing out the odd time into this dystopian world of quiet desperation, masked people slinking about scared and confused, suspicious of everything, afraid of each other...... "Bring out your dead" .... but who are they? They are us, we are dead inside, dead to each other. We have died some time ago, we just don't know it yet. We are just ghosts who cling in desperation to memories.

The above was a comment I posted on Koji Helnwein's Instagram in answer to her text underneath this photo:

^SOURCE

Quoting Koji Helnwein

“You’re not imagining it, nobody seems to want to talk right now.

Messages are brief and replies late.
Talks of catch ups on zoom are perpetually put on hold.
Group chats are no longer pinging all night.

It’s not you.
It’s everyone.
We are spent.
We have nothing left to say.
We are tired of saying “I miss you” and “I can’t wait for this to end”.
So we mostly say nothing, put our heads down and get through each day.

You’re not imagining it.
This is a state of being like no other we have ever known because we are all going through it together but so very far apart.

Hang in there my friend.
When the mood strikes, send out all those messages and don’t feel you have to apologise for being quiet.

This is hard.
No-one is judging.”

Author ~ Donna Ashworth from her book “History will remember when the world stopped.”

Some simple words that speak volumes on day 170+ of lockdown in Ireland with no end in sight yet.

^{posted on Instagram by Koji Helnwein the wife of my friend Cyril Helnwein}