Outside-Inside-Out

After a year of 2020 Vision

of looking inward with forced introspection, 

have we become agoraphobic or socially inept?

If given the choice, will we venture out of doors? 

Like a cooped-up dog on the first day of outdoor sniffs after a long winter, will we give a joyous bark to announce our return or doubtfully stand wary on the front stoop?

We have learned to hibernate, to dwell alone, together staring into little boxes and large screens, to live in stasis.

We huddle in our own safe bubbles, longing for the return of our lives, like the Messiah returning us to what was—to the shops, parks, clubs, and the garden—just not that Garden.

It tempts us with its proximity: outside events, work, school, travel, and other people; dressing in real clothes, wearing a watch, wearing lipstick, going bare-faced, and seeing other people’s smiles. 

We can’t wait, or are we not so ready?

Time has changed us over the last year; we are set in our new ways, lazy, unfocused, unregimented by the world’s plans for us, the requirement to go, do, and be.

For the many people who felt alone before this “we’re all in this together social bubble”, — they are now on the inside, looking out — and uncertain if they can once again learn to live by being on the outside looking in.

Ronda R. Scott-Marak

© 13 April 2021