When he was quarantined during the bubonic plague, Isaac Newton discovered gravity. Elsewhere in England, William Shakespeare was also hunkered down, social distance writing King Lear. In my house, we’re stress baking, eating jelly beans, and binge-watching Netflix.
What is your grand opus? Do it now!
Or, don’t.
I couldn’t give a fuck.
Here’s what I *do* give a fuck about, though: you being the best version of you that is needed by the people you love right now.
What is your Grand Opus?
Want to write that big idea book? Good, do it.
Want to learn that new language? Bravo, let’s go.
Want to master the art of cooking with Julia Child? Please invite me over, and set a place six feet from your stovetop.
If what you need to do in this time, like me, is to build a structure to your day and create, create, create as a way to channel your energy and anxiety and — well, panic — then do that.
If what you need to do in this time, also like me, is to nest the hell out of your house and home in a way that would make my nana proud, then do that.
It is my deep desire that in addition to eradicating the world of the novel Coronavirus, COVID-19, we take this opportunity to eradicate the world of another, less fatal but just as contagious disease: judgment. And, yes, I’m talking about the judgment that we have for other people, and the judgment they have for us, but also the judgment we wrangle out of the sky and yoke to our own necks.
Your Grand Opus only needs to be… yours.
You don’t have to handle this the way anyone else does. You don’t have to produce the way anyone else does. You don’t have to wallow the way anyone else does. All you have to do is figure out what works for you and lean unapologetically into that.
So, let’s send a hearty and hale congratulations to Isaac and William, and then congratulate ourselves for living limitlessly, even in quarantine.
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