Petrificus Totalus

The normalcy surrounding our fruitful days has been obstructed. The jubilant conversations that used to speak about ideas, places, and hopes now have turned into dialogues full of despair surrounding numbers, safety, and death. Currently faced with defeat, forced to confront the reality of the situation, uncertainty consumes the brain. All control that was once a strong crutch has withered into a pile of shavings that is blowing past the face’s of the unsettled souls. The entire world at one moment, has felt the same anguish, disillusionment, and fear over a word that prior to five months ago was not present in anyone’s vocabulary. Society has halted and virtual platforms provide separated friends, family members, and relatives the freedom to continue the conversations that once filled the air. Behind the Advil, Tylenol, and

in the medicine cabinet, laughter has forever been pushed aside by the need to relieve pain artificially and quickly. Yet in this paused, ever translucent moment, seclusion has forced the robotic routines of the Earth to halt, to which the younger generation has attempted to litter the cloud with fantastically fictitious depictions of the present. Incessant scrolling of a finger across the plastic rectangular screen never evoked a raw emotion and yet now has become authentic apothecary to combat this existence.

Reckless statements neglecting to mention the fatalistic reality of this pathogen transports humanity to an opposite realm full of greed, deception, and criticism; forcibly enacting a competitive form of survival. The oldest tale throughout time develops naturally, and unsurprisingly, unmistakable divisions are formed. Universal problems rarely occur and it is an unfortunate accepted truth that when the home-front is safely positioned, the battle is irrelevant. Sports practices, crowded bars on Friday nights, and the corner pizza joint have all disappeared into a void that resembles a distant dream. One persistent enemy versus 7.5 billion emotion-stricken humans. Disheartened proprietors, stunned college students, and discombobulated physicians cannot grasp hold of the ever changing situation and disappointment saturates their emotions. Undiagnosed side effects of this calamity include alarm and nausea which are known to be exhibited systematically and can be exacerbated by engaging in the sickening news sources. Separate from those safely in the comforts of their fully stocked home are those encountering this misfortune on the front line. Their tired eyes dehydrated from the constant stream of wet tears that unwelcomely welled in the corner ocular duct at the sight of their lost soldier.

The contending sentiments of ambivalence and hope are hidden behind two doors that have multitudes of people fluctuating between them, unsure of which to feel at that moment. The society that knew only how to control and compartmentalize is learning how to swim through uncharted waters without sufficient life vests. This ominous and unsettled time that precedes our future crowds our emotions with notions of the what-if’s and have nots, and to sink beneath our anguish and fixate on these futile thoughts only makes us drown quicker. Complexity has always infatuated humanity and at this moment every little thing has been reduced to a simplified term. The door that is entered showcases the coping method that is necessary to maneuver this affliction and the intricacies of life are reduced to two fundamental particles; positive and negative. Dwelling on one door for too long is proven to lead to blindness and headaches that focus on apprehensions, yet the other can produce ignorance and distorted notions of reality. The minutes that feel interminable represent the universal disorientation and stillness that have left us in a state of pure petrification.