Inequality Has Been Laid Bare by the Outbreak. Now What? nyti.ms/2XeyjqP
There is an argument that behaving unusually is a rational way to assimilate an altered reality, especially if the alteration is a rotten one. When you pre-emptively dismiss whatever rules of living are within your control, like using furniture or wearing clothes, you’re injecting yourself with a tolerable portion of insanity, which works like a vaccine. I’m childless, but I’ve watched friends who are isolating with children slip immediately into a less-extreme version of the same state: losing their grip, abandoning their routines, witnessing their selves mutate. If you believe that identity is behavior — that you are how you act, not what you think or how you feel — then you understand that adjectives like ‘‘normal’’ or ‘‘functional’’ require constant tending. If you change your conduct, you can change your life: how simple, and how daunting! All it took for me to become unrecognizable was to start acting like a different person. In theory, this should work in reverse too. When this is all over, I can return to chairs and forks and sleep. It would probably be for the best. In the meantime, there are plenty of individuals who haven’t spiraled, either because they don’t have the luxury or do have a stronger constitution. In these people I find an inspiring path back to normalcy.
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