Friday – ‘ the day of Frigga’ named after the Germanic goddess of Love. I am not quite sure if the Friday that we know of today, elucidates love per se, but what it has become strappingly associated over the course of time, is so called ‘start of the weekend’ – depicting a sort of freedom, a liberation, possibly from virtual clutches of the daily grind of nine to five.
Friday is one of the most valued days in most of western world, largely as it marks a break to our work week , followed by the welcome opportunity to do rest of one’s life in the subsequent two days. Its imperative to wonder how this definition and distribution, almost compartmentalisation of our life, one week after another had thus far impacted our lives.
There is always this mandatory Friday at- work question ‘ any plans for the weekend’ ?! and indeed these two days proposed a host of ‘doing life’ ideas, intents and options. Life that most of us were unable to do due to the monotonous routines. Ever burdening work demands, expansive to- do lists, back churning commutes to work and desperate hours in traffic jams. ‘Doing Life’ as simple as spending time with your loved ones, having a cooked breakfast, and getting your nails done usually made it to the weekend- to- do list.
More overlooked, in the melodramatic humdrum of daily grind were things like connecting with the juxtaposed world of nature around us, may be staring at the clouds forming and de forming, sitting next to a plant or soaking the sun. Just standing and staring, may be breathing and being aware of it. And most of all – just doing nothing for one-minute moment.
How Life as we know it had become nothing but a constant whirlwind of tasks and tick boxes, demands and deadlines, contests, competition and a constant struggle to survive. Bread winning is no more just bread. The global world of pride and pretention had somehow rendered mankind in a constant state of combat – a virtual war within oneself and one another. Engulfed by the glamorous – rather pseudo world of Instagram and Snap chat, perpetual portrayal of pristine perfection had become the new benchmark in the cornicle of ‘survival of the fittest’.
I, like many others, jumping the bandwagon if Insta Enthusiasts, often struggle to account and justify the amount of time I spend aimlessly scrolling ‘being enthused’ by many a lives, projected via pictures. This constant surge of stories and snaps, fashion, travels, interiors – a sustained source of inspiration and ingenuity. Shopping malls swarmed with ambitious shoppers, cafes bustled with caffeine and company seekers, roads congested, airports overcrowded, busses bursting at the seams – this humungous cascade of homo sapiens in a state of constant rush. Heading heedlessly to destinations undefined.
All this was the case until of course more recently. When the world is turned upside down, by a so-called infective agent, a mere mass of nucleic acid, too small to be seen with a light microscope an unable to multiply or even survive outside a living host. This lethal game of jumping hosts and incapacitating the later has the world go berserk. Never in the modern history – since at least the 1945s has world felt so collectively so helpless – defenceless, demoralised and almost devoid.
Over the past two decades- with exponential surge in social media use, fast evolving definition of normality in view of expansive globalisation, has seen huge increase in mental health problems, of groups who stand most vulnerable is our youth, malleable and susceptible to social triggers, it can be argued that there may be a link between above and predisposition to image insecurities, substance misuse, eating disorders and affective disorders.
Friday now is different, infact there’s hardly any line demarcating any day of the week with most of the world now stranded at home. My daily dose of Instagram has suddenly gone rather dull. With everyone sat home in their pyjamas, there’s little ‘inspiration’ to overindulge in weekend retail therapy. The planes grounded and airports deserted, no one’s aspiring to travel far and wide. In a blink of the eye, life has transformed from being overcomplicated, exceptionally competitive to something so plain and primitive that it’s surreal.
And as I sit grounded at home on the very weekend I used to stray outdoors, desperate to seek rejuvenation prior to another week of grind and drudgery. I get to contemplate, what I read somewhere ‘when all returns to normal, indeed we need to consider what of those ‘normal’ things are worth returning back to’
May be we owe this much to ourselves and our generations ! 🌿
Minds Meds and Muffins 