Page 32 - voices-2021-08

QUARTER NOTE

An Overabundance of Joy

David Freedman, IP3

It was during the pandemic that I learned to down with an infectious disease. One, that until
count my blessings again. We’ve all been living recently, had no vaccine and which proved to be

with social isolation for the last year. Gym time lethal many times over. We’re not well-equipped
and Zoom meetings being the main exceptions to stay at home and avoid socialization even
for myself. I’d realized that there were still when it’s an outright necessity. We don’t slow

some options to keep busy during my forced our activities when our culture insists that we
downtime. In fact, in many ways, it felt like I should do something to fulfill our economic
had too many choices to make in my own home. potential. Therefore, counting my blessings
I’m a huge bibliophile and gamer. There are became such an important strategy. I couldn’t
well over a hundred books that I’ve yet to read go out and job hunt or find much work online

and at least thirty video games unfinished. I can’t because most people couldn’t work. I couldn’t
even count all the TV shows and movies that are drum up business for our transcription company.
on my streaming list that I want to catch up on. No one in the film industry was able to create any

I couldn’t make myself play a lot of the games products for film, television, or documentaries.
or read a fraction of the books. The incessant I couldn’t visit family and friends very often for
voice in my head insisted, “You need to be doing fear of infecting them or they in turn infecting
something else. Now. Go job hunt. Get busy with me. Zoom became its own blessing. We could
creating your career. Don’t just sit there and have face time with our friends, relatives, and

mope.” Except, as we all know, we weren’t just other social or employment connections. Taking
sitting there and moping. stock thus became a major priority, and through
We were dealing with forced isolation. We doing that I eventually noticed that I had an

didn’t know when or where we could come overabundance of joy if I only took the time to

32 ONE COMMUNITY