Category: Life in the Time of the Coronavirus Contest

Photography by Osceola Refetoff Judge’s Comments: Our new world is framed through these emotionally charged images. They convey distance and desolation with great power. Click to enlarge!

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By Preity Upala We are living in interesting times indeed. Perhaps the most challenging, perplexing and fearful times ever in our history. We are in the Twilight zone in many ways. The Covid19 Pandemic has affected our planet like nothing else ever has before. Just goes to show no matter how rich, successful or powerful you are and even if you are living in the greatest country in the world at the best time in history, our entire existence is at stake and with our every move now controlled by…

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By Felicia Tomasko So I’ll start out by saying that I’m a yoga teacher and yoga practitioner as well as a writer, journalist, magazine editor. Quarantine has been an interesting time. I already do some of my work from home, so the whole WFH, setting up for video, and dressing for the videoconference call—that’s familiar to me. The challenges for me have come in the interactions with the outer world, including wearing a mask, pulling away from other people, and dealing with the realities of being in the media business…

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By C. Tillman A looming grey cloud coming from off in the distance. I remember wishing this wasn’t going to be bad. It was though- even worse. Then it began-sharing what I read and what I heard on CNN (clown’s nemesis). Clown, you ask- well we shall save that for the follow up article, should I write another. Covid-19, arrival date January 15, 2020 (3 months, 1 week and 2 days ago). What you were doing when you learned? Did you take it seriously? Where on the scale did you…

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By Sorina Szakacs I open my eyes and look at my phone. It’s 5:30 a.m., April 7th, day 19 of Los Angeles’ “Safe at home order”. My days are usually the same, even on weekends. I wake up before the sunrise, make a cup of coffee, and go on the balcony. I sit there until the sun sets, alternating coffee with wine, reading, and writing. I hear a door slam. I get up and look toward the street like those old bored at home ladies, ready to see some juicy…

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By Sharon Stello Cooking, dishes, laundry, TV, reading, repeat. My boyfriend is an essential worker, still going into the office, so I’m at home alone until he returns. One day blurs into the next and I can’t help feeling like a housewife in the 1960s-era “Mad Men” show I finally had time to watch. Of course, during this modern-day quarantine, we have the benefit of technology, so Facebook memes, Zoom game days, streaming television and Instagram live concerts also fill my hours. I have no children to homeschool and I’ve…

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By Paul Rogers “We’re ordered to stay home,” announced the text message, surprising me in the mostly black-spot wilderness of Indian Canyon. I strode on a few more steps; down to the seasonal stream that was the turnaround point of my hike. Recent rain propelled it across the otherwise dusty fire road with incongruous, picturesque purpose. “Okay,” I responded flatly, as not to inflame panic. “Will be home by dark.” A futile orange circle spun next to my words – they probably wouldn’t reach my wife before I did. It…

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By Matthew Rodriguez Every time I unlock my phone, the negatives seem to pile up — the worldwide shutdown, the increasing number of deaths and the seemingly endless supply of bad news. However, I try to focus on the positives — the extra time I have to play videogames, the FaceTime calls with my parents and the times I sneak out of quarantine to watch romantic comedies with an old fraternity brother. I can’t do much else. Prior to being locked-up in my West-LA apartment, blocks away from my favorite…

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By Olivia Remedios DEAR Coronavirus, I suppose we should introduce ourselves: We are the Quaranteens. Our world was never prepared for a collision like this, although there were signs that could have changed everything. Since you are sticking around for a while, closing down schools and putting families out of jobs, we wanted to tell you a few things about us. We know that no one asked for this, but specifically we didn’t ask for our childhood to be ripped away right when we thought it was time to say…

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By Jon Regardie In the time of the coronavirus, many of us have one thing in common: We’d do just about anything to gain access to Doc Brown’s time-traveling DeLorean from the Back to the Future movies. Just think— those doors swing up instead of out! Of course, it would also be nice to pull a Marty McFly and zip out of 2020 and into the past or the future, and to escape the incessant conversations and dark inner thoughts related to illness, death, quarantine, lost work and depleted bank…

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