Day 13: The distortion of time and space in isolation

We had our Day 11 of isolation Covid tests in the morning. If these come back negative then we'll be officially allowed to leave in a few days. The comfort factor during the test was definitely lower than our Day 3 tests, so we lucked in with the first nurse who had the very steadiest of hands.

We also got quizzed about our onward travel plans by one of the military folk -- I imagine they want to know where everyone is going so they can trace all movements in case there is an outbreak.

We also spotted some people on their way out which made us jealous, but also excited about hopefully leaving soon ...

The distortion of time and space in isolation

We've really noticed the effect of living in one room for the last 11 days and the lack of variety from day to day. The only certainties are the double knocks to advise there are food bags outside our door. Most days we also go walking and then there are semi-regular temperature and Covid checks. Other than that the only variety is what we read, watch on TV, things we create and games we play in our room. The days seem to meld into a blur when we think back.

We became aware that our perception of space had also changed. We'd become focused on only those things near to us ... even while walking we hadn't been looking far beyond the perimeter of the hotel. This was partly because the area around us is fairly flat and with the highish walls and barriers there didn't seem to be anything to see in the distance. So we were surprised today to suddenly notice that from one small area on the monitored walks we could see some hills in the distance, which turned out to be the Mangere domain and One Tree Hill ...

We think we'd initially been focused on only what our lives had become, which was our immediate environment. This was probably due to a mix of just trying to figure out how everything worked in our new world but perhaps also a mental confinement in our thinking that didn't make us try and see further. So we've tried 'looking beyond' and have started noticing trees and mobile phone towers which were always there but never noticed before.

I got curious and did some reading about this. One ex-prisoner talked about how the shear boredom of the repeated routine meant days dragged. However when he looked back on his time when his release was imminent the time seemed to have gone very quickly, which he believed was because the days had blended into one mass and there were few events to distinguish one day from another.

An article in The Guardian by another ex-prisoner talks about the fact that more than a third of the human population is currently  under some type of lockdown or restriction due to the pandemic. So in another sense many of us are confined in some ways, the differences being only one of scale and timeframe. The author came to the realisation that she needed to accept her circumstances as they were, then change her perspective about them: "To my surprise when I did this, those once menacing walls, with their obscene graffiti and chipped paint, transformed. They were no longer holding me hostage but offering refuge." The article talks about the parallel with home detention or stay-at-home lockdowns ...

"if we can shift our perspective, our homes become sanctuaries, not prisons. We are not locked in but rather the threat of disease, and hundreds of other harmful things are locked out, distractions and misaligned priorities among them."

Sometimes it can be helpful to consider other perspectives.