The State of the World
Lindsay Bayford
Approximately four weeks ago now, I began drafting a blog post titled “The State of the World” and below is what my first paragraph looked like at that time…
“I thought that last week was a hard week for me and facing the universe, but this week the world seemed to outdo itself entirely. Sigh. Last week my favorite bookstore in Vernon—the bookstore that has generously stocked my book and has invited me to hold book signings—announced that it is closing its doors. There is some speculation over exactly why this has come about, but the one thing that is clear is that not enough people have been shopping there. Someone said, “People aren’t reading anymore!” But I’m not convinced that that’s the reason. I still see people reading. I’m still reading. My kids are still reading. My friends are still reading. So what has happened in the marketplace that we can no longer culturally support small book stores? I can already hear my sister’s voice saying to me, “Amazon!” And when I stop and reflect honestly, I have to admit that I have turned to not just Amazon, but many different retailers, when making book purchases. But book stores have always had competition—the public library for instance. The public library is proof that people are still reading books and that not all is lost. And then this week I visited the library with two of my kids. While we wandered through the children’s section looking for reading material, there sat a family of four, with two children under the age of ten, sitting together in one of the cushy reading nooks, eating food and playing on their cell phones! The window ledge beside them was already stacked with food wrappers, empty pudding containers, and juice boxes. The “dad” and two children held smart phones and were playing online games—and talking and laughing in full voice volume! I grimaced and wondered if I should tell someone about what was going on here. I looked around and right behind me there was a library employee shelving books, la-dee-da-dee-da, not a worry in the world. I was dumbfounded. ‘So that’s how it is now?’ I heard myself thinking to myself, my jaw hanging open as I stared exasperated. To say that this unexpected display was a distraction for me would be a gross understatement. I was devastated. And my other leading emotion was a feeling of betrayal—betrayal by an institution that has always had rules and expectations and that never seemed to waver in those—a place that you could rely upon for order and decorum. To me, it was another harsh reminder that things are changing around us at unprecedented speeds, and we are facing a brand new state of the world as we know it—one that I’m not sure that I am going to easily adapt to.”
And then there was covid-19.
A month ago a bookstore closure and the new culture of the public library were blowing my mind, but here we are in a completely foreign state of existence—something akin to a science fiction novel (which admittedly has never been my favorite genre). All I can do right now is repeat my own words from one month ago. “Things are changing around us at unprecedented speeds, and we are facing a brand new state of the world as we know it—one that I’m not sure that I am going to easily adapt to.” What else can be said?