Today's Color
The First Weeks of Lockdown, Seattle, Washington, March 2020
Photo by Emma Hemingway, (Kodak Ultramax 400) taken on a Canon AE-1 Program film camera
A step outside and that gulp of fresh air is your first in twenty hours. It feels good. You breathe in wind through your nostrils and the scent of pines comes with it and the sky is gray but that does not matter. Sun would have been nice. It is a little rude of her not to turn her lights on for you. Alas, you march on into the crisp morning with a renewed sense of purpose. You were so aimless a minute ago. So distraught. So irate at the world for doing absolutely nothing to you in particular and for doing her worst to us all at the same time. It is strange to take comfort in the suffering of others, and yet knowing that we all suffer the same does not delight – but it satiates you. Satisfied. You take another deep breath. Is your sense of smell going? They say that’s one of the signs. No. You pass a trash bin and your nose scrunches and all faith is restored in your lymphocytes again. The cogs keep turning, tiny goo drops with tiny goo people and tiny goo levers wrenching back and forth and back and forth all the time to keep you standing. You are still standing! And yet, somehow this doesn’t feel like as much of an accomplishment as you thought it might. So many have suffered so much worse, but you complain because you have a warm, safe room and a warm, safe bed all to yourself? You - you! You coward! You putz! You dastardly, waywardly spec of imbecility who has the audacity to walk this earth alone and to complain the whole while. A crack in the pavement nearly trips you, but it is alright because you catch yourself in the nick of time. You breathe a sigh of relief. Inhale. Look up at the clouds and out to the sea and oh, there is the sea. You are lucky. You will not forget it. Not until the milk runs out tomorrow, and you curse the world once more for its treachery.
Emma Hemingway is a fourth year student at the University of Edinburgh studying International Relations. She is the founder, web designer, and Editor-in-Chief of Ensemble Magazine.