CORONA LOCK DOWN

CORONA LOCK DOWN

I was in prison for 28 years. I did substantial portions of that time in prison inside the prison.

I prison we make light of many things. One of those things, that no one in prison actually wants to ever have to deal with, is prison inside the prison--solitary confinement or segregation.

When you get in a fight that goes bad ( by you hurting someone too much) or you get confirmed as a gang member or you get in a physical confrontation with one of the guards that work at the prison you wind up in solitary confinement.

You only get one hour of the day out of your cell. And that's only on the days the guards feel like it. You get to live around people that have slightly and completely lost their minds. The only time you get to interact with these other people is by yelling over the walkways or going outside to your designated cage while they are in their's.

All of your movements are restricted. Even more so than in regular prison population.

And, yes, it all sucks.

So I can feel people's pain. Most normal people are not use to living in America as if they were living in a dictatorship. Where the Government says shut down, stay at home, don't go out and that is the end of it. In America, freedom is valued over all else. The ability to move around when and where you wish, the ability to go wherever you want to go and not have your intentions questioned, the ability to sneeze, because you have allergies, and not be looked at funny are all things that people, up to now, have taken for granted.

In other countries this is how people live their lives every day. Just like I lived for 28 years in prison. You are not allowed to do what you wish. You can't go where you want. Everything you do is mandated and controlled in some way.

And now that people are being forced to work from home the comparisons (between free societies and those that are not between not being and being in prison) are becoming a lot clearer to people. Would you like to live the way you are living now forever? Would you enjoy having the Government just create a schedule for you every week that tells you where you can go and where you can't go?

How about if all the stores ran the way they are now regularly? Empty shelves. Designated times for certain people to come in--the elderly can come in at this time, other people, not considered elderly, can come in at this time. Who decides what the age of elderly is?

You can only leave your residence at certain times. You must return to your residence at certain times.

No more than 10 people can be seen together at any time. More than that and, well,  you know.

I have taken the time to reflect on, and juxtapose, the corona lock down and my incarceration. A lot of similarities. A lot of similarities with dictatorship style governments also.

The negative effects of the corona lock down are obvious. And since that is all you hear daily on the news, how bad it all is, the corona lock down has caused people to develop a kind of paranoia. One that sees only the bad in the lock down.

In prison I did two things every day: 1 I read. 2 I worked out.

The free time I had alone allowed me to think through tough concepts quickly. All distractions were blocked out. The day would begin and end the same, for me, everyday. No deviations. 

So people on the corona lock down should look at it the way I looked at my time in prison--as an opportunity. An opportunity to study those things you've been putting off. An opportunity to do some valuable research. An opportunity to work without distracting co workers getting in your way. An opportunity to reflect on relationships in order to make them better. An opportunity to finally kick off that bad ass new work out routine you've been putting off.

Look at it all as positive instead of negative. And if you are, like myself, the type of person that pays attention to the little influences in life that come along at odd times then you may want to look at your own, personal situation in a more meaningful way. Why has this happened now? How can I take advantage of the free time I have been given? What is that thing I really need to use this time to accomplish?

When people want to elevate themselves a lot of the time they first have to isolate themselves. So you are isolated. Now take the time to actually listen to that voice of yours in your head.

And then go one step further. Don't just listen to the voice. Do what the voice is telling you to do. Because that is you, from the past from the future, talking to you. Advising you on how to go about getting to the important shit that you need to be doing with your life.

So focus on the negative of the corona lock down if you wish. But just remember the world we all see around us is a construct created in our minds. Focusing on the negative makes us experience the situation as negative. If we view it as a positive, a time to truly do the things we find important, then the situation becomes something else.

 My prison, that led to my becoming the person that I am today, was real prison. Prison, as a harbinger of good, seldom works out. I, fortunately, was one of the ones that prison worked for. There have been others. Just not many others.

One of the most profound things about being on lock down is the time to think. To just think with no input from others around you. You see, from the time we are born until the time we die most of us experience life as a never ending string of networks. With family, with friends, with co workers, etc. Communications are always ongoing. And these inputs influence us in ways that are real.

These inputs are our personal prisons.

The corona virus has given you time outside of your personal prison, by placing you in its imposed prison of societal isolation. How are you going to use the time??

Chapter Two

And the lock downs continue...

Everyone initially looked at the lockdowns as blessings in disguise. Finally they had the time to get things in their lives in order that needed to be gotten into order. Positivity was the word of the day. It was definitely what I was putting out there. And I believe that was the right way to go. Why be negative about a situation that was almost impossible to deal with? Find the good in it and get to work.

Then it began to become obvious that the situation was going to drag on and on.

Politicians began to use the virus as a weapon. And, true to form, they had to issue mandates to prove how serious they all were about the situation.

Businesses began to fail. People were uptight so they hit the streets to join protests against real and imagined enemies. 

Schools were closed. Classes were online only. Schools were opened. Then reclosed. 

Masks were worn. Masks were not worn. Masks were mandated. And people just began to get tired of it all. Then they were not tired of it.

Then the things people were seeing became strange and seemingly more nefarious.

Were politicians playing politics with people's livelihoods? Were they ruining small businesses on purpose? Why were they doing this?

Then we observed something that doesn't happen that much. Sheriffs were refusing to implement the dictates of elected officials that they worked with.

And these refusals to cooperate with the Covid lockdown enforcements were not just isolated incidents. Many Sheriffs were refusing to enforce these rules. And why should they? The politicians issuing the orders were refusing to apply the terms they wanted everyone else to follow to themselves.

So where are we now?

We await the arrival of our new president. Our president, the one still in office, seems to not exist at all anymore. 

The vaccines are on the way!

Yet the madness continues. More lockdowns are spoken of being implemented daily. 

Doctors and Scientists from everywhere are continuing to tout the MASK as the cure all that has done absolutely nothing to stop, slow or anything else the virus.

And the sheep of the world continue to follow along like THE MASK is some magical totem that will keep a virus from getting on their hands, skin, clothing and into their eyes. Seriously.

So what is the average person now supposed to do???

I, personally, have become rather frustrated with the entire charade.

Stay focused on the positive aspects of your lives. Stay focused on all the good you have accomplished during these trying times. And let's all pray that it ends soon.

I can't move because of my parole restrictions. You, and everyone else, can't move as freely as you would like because of the, equally stupid, corona restrictions.

Let's endure...

And it is ok to be a little pissed too...

If you wake up one morning and see a chapter three to this it will be ugly....