The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Warp

Last year, when the ‘rona began ravaging Wuhan, China, I reacted as I suspect a lot of people elsewhere—and certainly in the United States—did. It seemed so terrible and tragic. And, when the Chinese government shut the city down, completely surreal. What with the empty streets and all in a city of millions.

Soon thereafter came stories of the Chinese government ordering the building of a massive hospital. From scratch. To be completed in weeks.

Madness! Surely, to construct a building that fast would require all manner of corners to be cut. You wouldn’t catch me in that flim-flam fire hazard, I thought to myself.

But, as we now all know, the shutdown of Wuhan, and all of China, turned out to be a turning point in China beating back the virus. Not without shocking and life-altering tradeoffs. But still.

And that hospital? Well, it turned out to be not quite the death trap that I thought it would be. At least as to construction quality. I’m sure many Chinese died of the ‘rona in that place.

Going viral

Eventually, the virus crossed the ponds. It then became clear that we here in the U.S. of A. were gonna be in for one heckuva ride. Whatever that turned out to mean. I’d read enough over the years about the possibility of a pandemic, and most of the world’s complete unpreparedness for it, to know that if and when one came, it would turn the world upside down.

And yet.

And yet, I couldn’t fully process what that meant until I was actually in the middle of it. I mean, as the last global pandemic occurred 100 years ago—before your humble but old and terribly decrepit blogger was born—I’d, of course, never personally experienced one.

But as the alarm bells started going off in the United States, increasingly dire news stories started dominating the headlines, and unprecedented preventative measures began being taken (most notably when the National Basketball Association cancelled the remainder of its 2019–2020 season), the reality started sinking in.

Then came increasingly stern warnings to socially distance and avoid hanging out with people, and especially groups. OK, I thought. That’s all inconvenient. But it sounds sensible, so I’m down with it.

Then the masks. I’d for years seen footage and pictures of people in east Asia wearing masks. But I always thought it weird. And probably overkill, whatever the rationale.

My opinion of masks for myself? No thank you.

So, as long as we Americans weren’t being told that we should wear masks, I was generally OK with the restrictions that had been imposed. Even if I didn’t like that new reality.

But eventually public health experts changed their tune and started imploring us to wear masks. Everywhere. All the time.

Ugh.

I, and The Family, grumbled but dutifully complied. I should add that I still hate the mask. At some point, I’m absolutely going to have a ceremony in which we burn our masks. All of them. Then we’ll stomp on the ashes.

Altered states

Had someone told me just a few months earlier, before the ‘rona reared its ugly little spiked head, that we’d be living in a reality that involved socially distancing, mass working from home (for the more fortunate amongst us), lockdowns, etc., etc. . . . and wearing masks as a matter of course, and that this reality would last for more than a year, I’d have told them that they were nuts.

And yet.

And yet, we did.

I’m since vaccinated and have slowly but surely started living like I did in the before times. But the strangest thing has happened. This weird state in which we socially distance, avoid groups (at least indoors), furiously wash or sanitize our hands many times each day, etc., etc., and wear masks has become not just the new reality, but the new normal. A world I thought completely fanciful not much more than a year ago seems totally rational. And not just a little hard to abandon. And the world I’d known for all the decades of my life until then seems . . . well . . . strange, at the very least. Maybe even not quite right.

I’m far from alone. I’ve been with plenty of fully vaxxed family and friends who still don the mask in situations and places they’re not required to.

I can’t even wrap my head around this turn of events. But it got me to thinking about how I, or most of all of us, have grown to accept as reality and normal things that we might previously or otherwise have thought totally absurd. There are no shortage of such examples.

Work life

I dunno about you, but before I started my working career, I’d from time to time think about the awesome life I’d live. Highlights I envisioned included the family I’d have, the epic trips I’d take, the fantastic friendships I’d develop, and so on and so on.

Work, as a concept, was part of that life. But almost as an “Oh, yeah. I guess I’ll work, too.” At the very least, work would be something I was passionate about, and loved doing. Maybe even something that I enjoyed so much, I’d do it for free (tho I’d never tell my employer as much, of course).

I certainly never thought work would be a little or completely unfulfilling and/or an all-consuming part of my life for 45+years. Much less something that’d essentially make my other starry-eyed visions difficult (and sometimes all but impossible) to realize.

And yet.

And yet like so many others, I came to accept as a reality things I’d neither intended nor wanted to.

Like that a normal working career lasts 45+ years. Oh, and that for most of us, those are the best/healthiest/most productive years of our lives.

And that a normal work week takes up more than 70% of the days of the week. And that a normal workday is 8–10 hours long. Oh, and that for most of us, those hours are the majority of the best daylight hours of the day.

And that jobs offering no paid vacation are common. And jobs offering paid vacation might only offer a few weeks of it. And that because we Americans GET . . . STUFF . . . DONE . . . it’s a badge of honor to not even take all the available number of days off.

And that many of us will never be able to afford to retire. And that that’s not so bad, right? Maybe it’s even OK? And that many of the rest of us will be forced into the ranks of the involuntarily retired. And that the vast majority who are lucky enough to voluntarily retire typically do so so late in life that they may only get to enjoy a scant few work-free years before life-limiting health issues come about and, eventually, the grim reaper pays a visit.

Normal. Right?

Warp speedy

I’m fortunate. I learned a few years ago that it don’t necessarily have to be so. The vast majority of people either aren’t so lucky or, for whatever reason—good or bad—have chosen to stay the course. Sensible and strategic spending, saving, and investing are the keys to preventing (or halting) the warping.

Working careers spanning 45+ years? Optional.

Jobs or a career chosen primarily as a means to earn essential income, no matter how unenjoyable the work? Why do that to yourself?

Mandatory five-day work weeks and eight-hour (or more) work days? That’s arbitrary, isn’t it? Silly, even.

No vacation? Short paid vacation allotments? Not taking available paid vacation days? Life’s too short.

Retirement? Well, once you (get to) work for the pure joy of working, you’re pretty much there in all but name. And, of course, this “retirement” will have been entered into voluntarily.

Normal. Right.

And in the end . . .

The closer I get to FIREing, and the more I hear/read what others who’ve had their minds warped say about living unfulfilling and work-restricted lives, the more I recoil at the life I, too, once considered “normal.” Now I consider that thinking warped. Abby Normal, even.