Great Things From Social Distancing

Holedup? Nowhere to go? You are not alone of course. Throughout history much has been done during these periods of self-incarceration. Some items of interest perhaps. Read on, dear friend:

Frida Kahlo decides to paint while bedridden in a cast instead of watching Diego Rivera "distance" himself with other women. She used to paint butterflies on her cast.







French author Victor Hugo was not a fan of Napoleon III – and he went into exile 1851, with full banishment from France, Belgium, and the island of Jersey, before writing some very relatable words: “Exile has not only detached me from France, it has almost detached me from the Earth.” (We feel you, Hugo.) Rather than collapse into his own frustration, he holed up on the island of Guernsey and polished-off a novel he’d been putting on the back-burner for some time: Les Miserables. Touché.

Victor "Vick" Hugo showing off one of
his novels. It may be Les Miserables, but no one can be certain
without the ISBN numbers from Amazon

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Simone "Simi" de Beauvoir looking
splendid as she awaits Sartre who as usual
will be late for the meeting.

As a French author famed for her strength of character, Simone de Beauvoir decided to expand her skill-set under under Nazi occupation by writing her first (and only) play, Les Bouches inutiles (translated as “The Useless Mouths” or “Who Shall Die”) in 1945. It’s a poignant story, centred around a 14th century family’s survival during the siege against the Burgundians – and it also represents so much of what creatives were feeling and doing during that time in Paris; Jean-Paul Sartre, who was Beauvoir’s lover and creative partner in many respects, was working beside her to carve out the ethics of Existentialism. In the years to come, this time would be known as her “Moral Period” of writing.
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Sir Isaac "Newt" Newton gets a serious gold star for his social distancing skills. In 1665, a young Newton fled the Great Plague of London for a little village about an hour from Cambridge at his family’s estate, Woolsthorpe Manor, a less than thrilling lace, allowing him plenty of time to watch apples fall from trees, as the story goes. Also a bit of time left over to fine tune some ideas about gravity and Calculus. Upon returning to the city, voila! Professorship. 

The "Newt," trapped in a house that might have
proven an idea about gravity whilst
collapsing upon itself.

Look. You have plenty of time. Read his biography. HERE Who doesn't want to stay up all night reading about Calculus. Plus those laws on Thermodynamics! Sorry.That goes to Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot. Yet another read.


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Love him or hate him, you can’t talk psychoanalysis without talking Freud. (pronounced as written and not "Frood" as is the manner of certain mendicants with a paucity of educational opportunities.)  As a founder of psychoanalysis, Freud was paving the way for the kind of therapy that’s helping a lot of us cope with our emotions right now (ex. free association). Or not. One is never certain as to whether his theories "work" per se.

He fled Austria to London in 1938 where, in the last year of his ailing life, he raced to complete An Outline of Psycho-Analysis. It was published posthumously two years later.

Find a copy HERE
I trust this little read has been a delightful one for you as you while away the hours wondering when we shall meet again. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Please. Do not leave me in my hour of need.--GVR