Street Smart

It is strange, now—almost unthinkably strange—to recall the period in which it was not legally permissible to leave one’s house for more than one daily excursion during the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK, at which time the outdoors itself became a threat and an object of desire. Unluckily, I contracted Covid in the first week of the first national lockdown in March 2020, and then watched in horror as the symptoms carried on, expanding with no end in sight; for some time, I was not strong enough to take even the daily walk I was allowed, and my bed became the center of my universe, my world diminished. When I finally ventured back out, it was as if I were doing so in the aftermath of an apocalyptic event, which given the global death toll, I suppose I was—I suppose we all were. Everything was quieter, emptier, and stripped of traffic. Everything seemed novel, in a way that was frightening and also sort of thrilling. We became neurotic about being near each other…