Confinement Again: Portugal, January 2021

déjà vu...

Coronavirus cases have swelled in Portugal since the holidays. 

I'm sick of bringing up COVID-19, but like a reality star (Covid Kardashian?), she keeps hanging around—even when you don't want to notice her, you can't miss her.

Strict measures were in place in December. We even had curfew at 11pm on the weekdays and 1pm on the weekends. But nothing kept people from gathering in their homes, sharing their droplets, packed together like Portugal’s famous tinned fish.

Now, we begin again. Or is it continue with the same, only more of it, and a bit more amplified? I can’t tell anymore.

Tonight at midnight, Portugal goes into national confinement for two weeks, which is likely to be renewed for another two weeks after that. A month of confinement where we are to stay in, other than to go to the pharmacy and grocery shopping, work or doctor's appointments, or short exercise breaks around our home (having a dog is a good thing right now). Other businesses considered essential will be open with reduced hours. 

Oh, and you can’t buy alcohol at gas stations, in case you were planning to do so. 

Cafés and restaurants can provide take-out or delivery, but not in all circumstances—and most are not equipped for this, so these small businesses will close. Perhaps, as we saw during the first confinement in March and April, they’ll close permanently. 

The confounding thing about these quarantines and lockdowns and curfews and confinements is we're losing the ability to observe time in a human way.

Gone is temporal awareness: night turning into day into night again; the work week and the part of the week without work. We’re left with a sense that something is happening, but not much beyond the feeling that we’re an extra in Groundhog Day, a film I've never seen (but feel like I have). 

Yes, the above is a bit of an exaggeration. When I walk outside with Milo early in the morning, I'm bracingly aware that winter is full swing—we've had a cold snap, and the wind is positively polar. But there's a feeling around me as I run out to the market real quick for oat milk, coffee, and chocolate, three vital elements for a satisfying confinement, that I have no sense of the day or the time.

So here we are, 10 million people in Portugal, on the cusp of confinement again, while our neighbors in France start their new and improved curfew on Saturday. There, all residents need to be in their homes by 6pm every day. And, as I'm writing this, I just heard the UK is barring travelers (as if!) from Portugal due to a new virus strain in Brazil (we have close ties and lots of Brazilians live here). 

Your Turn

What about you and the place where you live? What's your day-to-day like? Where you live are there restrictions in place, or are people going about their business as if living in pre-COVID days? 

What do you do to keep the fires of inspiration, and hope for a brighter future, burning? I'd love to hear your thoughts, so share them below. 

GOOD READS

• What it Means to Pandemic, Solo by Anne Helen Petersen (this hits home)

• My friend Tammy put together a list of her favorite books from 2020

• Listening as Editing from The School of Life

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Thank you for being a dedicated & thoughtful reader, I appreciate you! If you’d like to support life: examined, you can buy me a coffee (if you were here, we could have one together). See you again next week!