In my experience,the initial novelty and excitement of working from home over this summer was short-lived as boredom and depression gradually took over as days passed. I had spent the summer of 2019 at home working on my comprehensive exams, which made me morose thinking that this summer was beginning to feel just like the last one. The thought that I wasn’t living up to the astronomically high bar I had set for my productivity level during the shutdown was adding to my woes. I would have continued in this mood and probably driven myself crazy. But just by chance I happened to see an “America’s got Talent” contestant, Archie Williams, singing “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”. I was shocked to learn that he spent 37 prime years of his life in prison for a crime he did not commit, and here I was wallowing in self-pity over two summers I spent cooped up in the comfort of my home. I would have expected a person with such an experience to be broken for life, but this man came out of imprisonment on to that stage, strong and beautiful like a butterfly from a cocoon. I felt I had  much to learn from people like him which led me to read about Anthony Hinton(“The Sun Does Shine”)and Lale Sokolov(“The Tattooist of Auschwitz”) who despite being wrongly confined, remained strong, inspired others around them and during this summer inspired me to turn my attitude on its head.  

Lesson 1: Having a hobby

This is an obvious one, but finding one that can be practiced in shut down conditions and keep you occupied for hours is important. Archie survived through his music. Anthony started a book club. Also, he spent hours constructing imaginary fictitious experiences of the world outside the prison in his mind. This enabled him to transcend the constraints of his physical surroundings. One wouldn’t think of food foraging as a hobby, but under adverse circumstances,it can be. Lale spent a great deal of his free time devising creative means of acquiring and syphoning food titbits to other inmates. So I pursued my hobbies too, gardening being one of them. My plants usually die of neglect, but over this summer they survived. 

Lesson 2: Finding joy in simple things

Even in WWII Auschwitz, little wildflowers were around to compensate Lale for the lack of hope and happiness in his surroundings. Cramped in his 5×7 cell Anthony craved the simplest of things like the feel of the sun, rain, smell of flowers, sweet tea…everything that I have access to. So, I watched for the stray cat to visit, the baby birds right outside my window to hatch and my flowers to bloom…I cannot explain why, but it made me feel content. The world is full of innumerable, simple, small beauties. We can find the most distracting joy in these small beauties.

Lesson 3: Friends old and new are for keeps

Anthony’s childhood friend made 7-hour round trips to meet Anthony in prison and never missed the weekly visitation day for 30 years. Some friends indeed are trophies worth preserving lifelong. So this summer I reconnected with friends from my childhood and undergrad years. About making new friends, if one is choosy, one must also prepare to remain hungry. Anthony developed close friendships with death row inmates, one of whom was in prison for lynching (Anthony is Black). Lale developed a sense of family with a nomadic group of people from whom, under normal circumstances, he would have remained aloof. So I too took the opportunity to make new friends among my neighbors this summer (over the fence and standing 20 feet apart). 

Looking back I feel I was more isolated before the shutdown than I am now. 

Lesson 4: Having a higher or long-term purpose or goal 

While Archie sang in prison, he also visualized himself singing on a big stage.Anthony’s desire to prove his innocence and keep his promise to his mother to come home one day kept him going. Lale’s determination to some day live a normal happy married life with his girlfriend and his ambition to keep rising in work positions for prisoners gave him a survival edge over other inmates. This got me thinking about where I wanted to be in terms of my personal and professional growth. So, I brought out the two separate lists I maintain to organize my life: 1) “To do urgently” list and 2)“To do someday” list(my natural tendency being to promptly execute tasks from the former and indefinitely postpone tasks from the latter) and just combined them into a single “Every item is important to do” list.
 

While our university gears up to reopen for students this September, the uncertainty in pandemic progress and a possibility of reclosing still looms large.  Quoting Archie Williams’: “I went to prison but I never let my mind go to prison” is what I’d like to tag as the take home message for every Clemson Tiger to survive in times of such uncertainty. Stay safe in your dens but let your minds not be caged.

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