The balance of life

Earlier this week (Monday 9^th March) I alighted upon a piece by Clare Foges on page 21 of my copy of The Times commenting upon the latest developments in the coronavirus epidemic and the UK government’s official advice on self-isolation – “Remain in your home. Do not go to work, school or public areas …” and so on.

[I regret that here that I cannot link Rusters to said article because Mr Murdoch in his wisdom has taken his newspapers back behind a pay-wall – and I object on principle to paying for access to things online that I have already paid for at my local newspaper shop.]

But never mind.

Ms Foges’ thrust was that in the modern world of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Tik-Tok, internet dating … and God alone knows what else … the human race has latterly become dangerously obsessed with self-exposure, exhibitionism, group or “herd” type behaviour (including condemnation of other people and things that few of them understand and/or know anything about) and simultaneously – by the same token – innately suspicious of situations or activities (and indeed people) that seem to require and/or indeed prefer periods of “shutting the world out”, peace, retreat to solitude and quiet reflection.

In short – her suggestion is that, ironically perhaps, the steps that members of the public are increasingly being asked to take in order to protect themselves (and their loved ones) from the effects of the coronavirus crisis might just enable the human race to “reconnect” with the balance that once used to be almost the backbone of society in which a mixture of group activities and solitary ones, far from being detrimental, actually produced healthier, more rounded and well-adjusted, tolerant and caring individuals, personalities and characters.

Call it an offshoot or subsidiary aspect of the old adage “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”, if you will.

It’s the proposition that whilst there are undoubtedly those as the extremes – i.e. total extroverts and their opposite (total introverts) – the vast bulk of human beings are (or should be) somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, i.e. a mix of the two, maintaining a balance between enjoying the company of others yet also making time in their lives to metaphorically “retreat to the top of a far-off mountain and do an impression of being a bearded hermit practising yoga for ten hours per day”.

The argument runs that, whilst neither 24/7 partying nor 24/7 “shutting oneself off and away from the world” are good in themselves for anyone in the long term as regards personal well-being, stress, mental health and gaining a sense of perspective about what and what is not important in the scheme of things, each of us finding some sort of balance between the two in our lives is a genuine all-round plus, both for us as individuals and also as members of the human community.

The bottom line – as I viewed what Ms Foges was suggesting – is that, frankly, in this frenetic “let it all hang out” modern world, having to place one’s self in self-isolation for a week or two would harm few and could actually turn out to be a blessing in disguise for those who – immediately they get up – feel that if they haven’t spent a minimum of ten hours per day glued to their smartphones communicating with everyone they know (and, as often, with people they don’t) via social media they have somehow missed out.

Hell, they might even find that spending some time on their own – and, for example, picking up a book – might be an illuminating and rewarding experience.

I suspect that Ms Foges may be onto something.

See here for a piece I found today on a website that I have never visited previously – THE DAY