Effects of COVID

Effects of COVID?

COVID has changed us!

Drastically. For some anyhow!

It might be a long road back…well, back to pre-COVID. That statement itself makes an assumption that things were better pre-COVID. Yes, I think that is an assumption. We all know what assumptions make out of us!

My recent experience illustrates that premise.

After almost 22 months of one kind or another of quarantine and deprivation from the public, I attended a public social event. All were masked. All had vaccination cards. All practiced social distancing. But it was public.

As a “recovering introvert” or an “omnivert”, this was what the night was like.

NOISE

The noise level was way too high! Was it the non-acoustic environment? Or just noise itself? Opening activities were just one big color burst of noise. It was like a light blast for the ears!

It seemed there were dozens of people all talking at once, and as more people came in, they all began talking to each other in their ‘outside’ voices. Like a bright light shining in your eyes, the noise poked your ears like a sharp stick. You yelled to have a conversation with a neighbor who stood some distance away from you, wearing a mask. No lip reading here! Facial expressions were not apparent.

Gone in an instant were the months of quiet sharing on the patio where only bird song and a distant lawn mover were the background sounds. After some moments of introductions and inevitable attempts at finding a connection, it just was not worth the effort to yell inane comments to people you had just met. Just stand and observe who were still expending the effort to converse. Try to adjust to the ever-rising volume of the crowd. This was your only option.

MUSIC:

Then there was the music! If the volume knob had 10 notches to select from, it apparently was turned to at least 9! The Bohemian Rhapsody had volume surges on its own, but at notch 9 they were unbearable and jolted you out of any involvement in conversation.

A request to turn the volume down was met by the management with a clear look of disdain. I immediately felt like a “Karen”. Not my stereo. Not my music. Not my call!

Ok this is what its like being “out”, not in my home bubble where there were choices in the environment. Adapt! Chill!

SPEAKER:

Suddenly the speaker activated the microphone. I jumped to the edges of my skin…not out of my skin, but close to its edges. I knew I was in trouble! Poor thing, she had to be heard over the music and the small talk, and then the noise of people finding their seats. Especially upsetting was the timbre of her voice. Fingernails on a chalkboard came to mind. Gears grinding in an old shift car or door hinges crying out for oil? You get the idea. Not a pleasant experience and I looked at long hours ahead of ear crashing sounds.

Bottom line—gone was any semblance of influence over the volume, noise level, or quality of the sound in the environment. Thank you, (sarcasm) COVID, for long months of artificial control or modulation. Welcome (sarcasm) to a new (old) world of being one of the crowd. No wonder there are so many people acting out in public. They are shell shocked by the sudden noise, crush of the crowd, and overwhelming loss of control over their environment.

RESPECT:

Picture yourself in this environment. Already you are feeling somewhat overwhelmed. After months of quiet, one-on-one conversations, and often solitude and introspection, you are suddenly seated in a long row of people. Granted there is some separation, but together you sit in a room with poor acoustics, an elevated noise level, and a screeching speaker who alternates with blasting music. Just down the row, out of distinct hearing range, but within ear shot, are two friends who have not seen each other for 20 months. There is a lot of catching up to do, and they are determined to do it all tonight!

For the entire two-and-a-half-hour event, they never stopped sharing and laughing uproariously. So glad they had met each other there, but jeez, take it outside! Or go somewhere after and get a cup of coffee!

The seemingly endless conversation and gratuitous laughter was overwhelmingly distracting. We had all paid money to hear the speaker, and not your conversation. Live and let live, but the chatter made me and anyone else in the audience with ADD more than slightly unfocused.

Ok, so COVID had increased the distractibility of the audience, and motivated gleeful conversation at the same time. Thanks again! And once again, no wonder people are on edge and reactive. They are stressed from financial worries, relationship change, and 24/7 exposure to kid-noise and in-home responsibilities. Over the top sharing and excessive noise and laughter you cannot participate in are just too much to handle.

We haven’t even gotten into the fact that this conversation and laughter was going on while the speaker screeched, music blared and, apparently unnoticed, people leaned forward trying to listen. It was physical and mental stress to the max. I paid for this. Seriously?

EXIT:

Ever had the feeling that you just can’t get out of there fast enough? COVID removed choices here. Again. Apart from taking a walk or an impromptu visit with family and other bubble members, there was no where to go while socially distanced and self-protecting. A few of us escaped to the beach or a quiet park or vacant field, but most generally just toughed it out where we were. It was not forever, right? Well, given the volume, the screeching, the distracting conversation, it all began to feel like the evening would go on forever! I hear water-boarding is torture due to the continuous drip-drip-drip that drove one crazy. And that being pecked to death by a duck is a horrible way to die. Honest to goodness, those pictures kept coming to mind as the exit door receded in a tunnel, seemingly farther and farther away each moment. The lecture ended, follow up questions were concluded, and the after-mingling began. The exit doors kept screaming my name!

While I had no where to go and no follow up activity to attend, there was no real urgency to leave. But the motivation to escape was profound. Escaping into fresh air in the parking lot and the quiet cocoon of my car called to me. I reached sanctuary and gave thanks while trying to settle my breathing and stop the ringing in my ears.

Thank you COVID for realizations. I know that meaningless conversation has a purpose. Excess noise has never been my thing but can be delt with. I know I can control the urge to request disrespectful people to shut up and listen. I feel deeply that quiet and introspection can be valuable. Quality of companionship is critical and valuable. Its not about people and noise and talk for its own sake. They can be important when peace “like a river” flows through the rest of your life.

Thank you, COVID for these valuable lessons.

Now, go away!

And let us get back to “normal.”