When someone suggested this as the title of an article I should write, I roared with laughter. Me, who has been climbing the walls, thinking of taking to drink, or killing myself or others. But, after all, I pride myself on being creative, so I decided to have a stab at it.<\/p>\n
I am very communal-minded, so I thought I should entertain the neighbours. I don\u2019t play any instrument, but I know hundreds of songs dating back to the 1940s. In my imagination, I saw all my Jerusalem neighbours coming out to join in, sending their children to the street below to dance, keeping their social distance, of course. Well, that\u2019s not exactly what happened. After I began singing \u2013 I chose my favourite aria from Madame Butterfly<\/em>, \u201cOne Fine Day\u201d \u2013 what I heard was doors being closed with great force and windows being slammed down. But, I persevered, until all the birds in the trees outside my balcony decided to migrate early this year and flew off to Australia or Siberia (whichever was the furthest), and even the cats that hang around our building also disappeared.<\/p>\n I next decided I could keep busy by tidying up my office. I know I have a very nice writing desk. I haven\u2019t actually seen it for a few years because my printer sits on it, plus a pile of ideas for articles and stories that I intend to use one day. I decided to be ruthless and get rid of them, but then I thought I should read them first, after which I decided maybe to keep them for happier times. At least, this activity kept me busy for a couple of hours.<\/p>\n By then, it was lunch time, and I decided to use my creativity to prepare a gourmet meal for my husband from the ingredients I could find, after not having gone shopping for about five weeks. I put things on the kitchen counter and looked at them: one sad-looking turnip, some potatoes, three packets of desiccated coconut (where did they come from?), a tin of chickpeas and a packet of potato flour left over from Pesach. This assortment really taxed my imagination, especially as my husband, these last few days, has been giving me looks that say, \u201cYou don\u2019t really expect me to eat this!\u201d I haven\u2019t done violence to him yet, which is a tribute to my self-restraint. Oh, I\u2019ve thought about it, and I think a good lawyer could get me acquitted if I did \u2013 I\u2019m sure there\u2019s something called \u201cjustifiable homicide.\u201d<\/p>\n I did the laundry, and then made the mistake of looking in the mirror. My hair hasn\u2019t had the tender ministrations of a hairdresser for more than a month. I\u2019m reminded of the song \u201cThe Surrey with the Fringe on Top\u201d from the musical Oklahoma<\/em>. I now have a fringe \u2013 or \u201cbangs,\u201d as I think North Americans say \u2013 and a strange triangle of hair that sticks out on the side. It is very depressing, but, if I put on my facemask and use the elastic to push it away, it doesn\u2019t look too bad. In fact, when I wear the facemask, I look quite good.<\/p>\n So, I guess I am keeping busy under lockdown after all. I would like to say that I keep a balanced diet \u2013 a block of dark chocolate in one hand and a block of milk chocolate in the other \u2013 but I don\u2019t actually have any chocolate. I like the story of a doctor who told his elderly patient that it would be a good idea if she put a bar in her shower, and she did \u2013 with bottles of whiskey, brandy, wine and vodka. I can\u2019t do it though, because my soap holder won\u2019t support even a bottle of wine.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, I hope I\u2019ve given readers some ideas of how to keep busy under the restrictions that COVID-19 requires. It\u2019s just a matter of initiative and creativity, and the time will pass constructively. I wish everyone good health until this traumatic time comes to an end.<\/p>\n Dvora Waysman<\/strong> is a Jerusalem-based author. She has written 14 books, including <\/em>The Pomegranate Pendant, which was made into a movie, and her latest novella, <\/em>Searching for Sarah. She can be contacted at dwaysman@gmail.com<\/a> or through her blog dvorawaysman.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When someone suggested this as the title of an article I should write, I roared with laughter. Me, who has been climbing the walls, thinking of taking to drink, or killing myself or others. But, after all, I pride myself on being creative, so I decided to have a stab at it. I am very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[9717,9784,4330,8302,9647],"class_list":["post-34942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-op-ed","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-israel","tag-lifestyle","tag-work"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}