• Menu
  • Skip to left header navigation
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • Explore Chicago
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

The Local Tourist

Experience the fascination of a tourist; Feel the comfort of the local

  • Travel the U.S.A.
    • The Midwest
      • Illinois
      • Indiana
      • Iowa
      • Kansas
      • Michigan
      • Minnesota
      • Missouri
      • Nebraska
      • South Dakota
      • Wisconsin
    • The South
      • Arkansas
      • Mississippi
      • North Carolina
      • Oklahoma
      • Texas
    • The West
      • Arizona
      • California
      • Colorado
      • Montana
      • Nevada
      • New Mexico
      • Utah
      • Wyoming
  • Travel Tips
    • Travel Now
  • Road Trips
    • Two Lane Gems
  • Cultural Travel
    • Arts and Culture
    • Attractions
    • Food and Drink
    • History
    • People
    • Roadside Attractions
  • Great Outdoors
    • Camping
    • Hiking and Active Travel
    • U.S. National Parks
  • Shop TLT
    • Travel Two Lane Gems
  • Travel the U.S.A.
    • The Midwest
      • Illinois
      • Indiana
      • Iowa
      • Kansas
      • Michigan
      • Minnesota
      • Missouri
      • Nebraska
      • South Dakota
      • Wisconsin
    • The South
      • Arkansas
      • Mississippi
      • North Carolina
      • Oklahoma
      • Texas
    • The West
      • Arizona
      • California
      • Colorado
      • Montana
      • Nevada
      • New Mexico
      • Utah
      • Wyoming
  • Travel Tips
    • Travel Now
  • Road Trips
    • Two Lane Gems
  • Cultural Travel
    • Arts and Culture
    • Attractions
    • Food and Drink
    • History
    • People
    • Roadside Attractions
  • Great Outdoors
    • Camping
    • Hiking and Active Travel
    • U.S. National Parks
  • Shop TLT
    • Travel Two Lane Gems
  • Contact
  • Work with TLT
  • Travel Writing
Tommy Hensel

Sparkling Isolation – Day 94

June 20, 2020 //  by Tommy Hensel//  Leave a Comment

3shares

True confessions.

Events of the past few months have been the catalyst for so much change in my life – not just the obvious physical issues of quarantine (masks, hand sanitizing, grocery delivery, being under curfew, etc.) but also more metaphysical issues. I feel like an entirely different person than I was a few months ago.

I know we all change all the time, but most often those changes take place over longer periods of times. Or, if something traumatic happens to force a change, it’s isolated and there’s time to process and adapt. Lately, it’s like one giant ongoing trauma that has given little or no time for processing.

So I have felt myself become more brittle, less patient. Interestingly enough, I feel like those are good things. My loss of patience has not manifested in me becoming overly reactive as it might have in the past. Before all of this, when I had times of stress where my patience was thin, I would often overreact to nearly everything. I took things personally, I had road rage, I would brood for days or weeks over supposed slights or insults.

Now, this new lack of patience feels more like a lack of caring about minor things – or at least those things that feel minor to me. It’s like I have taken my personal worldview and moved it from being on the ground, circling up to a higher perspective and seeing things with more context. “Little” things still bother me in the moment, but they pass more quickly.

This leads me to one of the more significant revelations I have had recently. As I have grown less patient, I have found that I need to distance myself from social media more and more. I am also not checking news with any frequency. At first, I thought that just pulling back a bit would help, but the minute I dive back in to check things again, all the stress cascades back over me.

I finally realized something. I don’t want to hear anyone’s opinion.

I don’t just mean the people with whom I disagree, or the frightening “flat earther” types. I also mean people I like and admire and with whom I agree. 

At the risk of sounding like another cranky old man, I long for the “good old days.” Some of you will remember the days I mean. Back when, if I wanted someone’s opinion, I would ask for it. Back when there were only a few networks and news was actually researched (mostly) before it was broadcast. Back when, if you were outraged by something, you wrote a letter to the editor. If it got printed then people could respond, but it took time – time during which you might actually go to the trouble of thinking carefully before responding.

I long for the days when someone shared their opinion and you could then have an actual conversation about the topic – a real, honest-to-goodness face-to-face dialogue. Even if that conversation were on the phone, it was still a live human interaction with people discussing things like actual rational human beings.

I long for the days where people could not hide behind a virtual wall if they wanted to put their opinion out into the world. Back when you had to own your words and actions if you put them out into the world and you had to take responsibility for the results of those words and actions.

So here’s my true confession for today. I don’t want to know what anyone thinks about anything any longer unless/until I ask for that opinion or unless/until a friend feels strongly enough about something that they truly feel I need to know. Social media has some good points – I guess – but right now it’s making me sad, angry, unhappy, and basically depressed. I am not going to entirely divorce from it – not just yet – but my already curtailed use is about to get even more curtailed.

I will keep up my daily gratitude posts and this daily blog (at least until I am finally not quarantining any longer). Otherwise, you might think I am ghosting on you. I’m not – or at least it’s not personal if I am. I am ghosting on everyone.

It’s only Quarantine if it comes from the Quarante province of France. Otherwise, it’s just Sparkling Isolation.

3shares

Category: ThoughtsTag: Sparkling Isolation

About Tommy Hensel

Tommy Hensel is the Director of the Fine and Performing Arts Center at Moraine Valley Community College (www.morainevalley.edu/fpac), a position he has held since January 2008. A native of Columbia, South Carolina, he has worked for more than 35 years as a professional actor, singer, stage manager, director, and arts presenter. He holds a B.A. in music and a B.A. in communication from Florida State University and an M.A. in theater from the University of South Carolina. He currently serves as Chair of the Illinois Presenters Network and is a board member of NAPAMA. He served as co-chair of the 2018 Arts Midwest Conference and currently sits on the professional development committees of both NAPAMA and Arts Midwest.

Prior to his move to Chicago, Tommy was an 11-year resident of the Seacoast region of New Hampshire where he served as Executive Director of the Rochester Opera House and sat on several non-profit arts boards. He has served on grant review panels for the New England Foundation for the Arts, New Hampshire Arts Council, Vermont Arts Council, and Illinois Arts Council. During his years as an arts presenter, he has also served on the juried showcase panels for the Arts Midwest Conference and Performing Arts Exchange.

Among his many theater credits, Hensel was the founding artistic director of the Harrisburg Shakespeare Festival (now part of the Gamut Theatre Group in PA). He has over 50 professional directing credits to his name and an extensive resumé as a theatrical performer and cabaret singer. In Chicago, he has a side "gig" as a restaurant reviewer for The Local Tourist website (http://chicago.thelocaltourist.com) and blogs about travel and food at https://www.tableforoneplease.com.

Related Stories

Tommy Hensel

Sparkling Isolation – Day 248

Tommy Hensel

Sparkling Isolation – Days 151 through 247

Tommy Hensel

Sparkling Isolation – Days 144 through 150

Tommy Hensel

Sparkling Isolation – Days 136 through 143

Tommy Hensel

Sparkling Isolation – Day 135

Tommy Hensel

Sparkling Isolation – Day 134

Tommy Hensel

Sparkling Isolation – Day 133

Tommy Hensel

Sparkling Isolation – Day 132

Tommy Hensel

Sparkling Isolation – Day 131

Tommy Hensel

Sparkling Isolation – Day 130

Tommy Hensel

Sparkling Isolation – Day 129

Tommy Hensel

Sparkling Isolation – Day 128

Previous Post: «Tommy Hensel Sparkling Isolation – Day 93
Next Post: Sparkling Isolation – Day 95 Tommy Hensel»

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Your Cart

  • Contact
  • Work with TLT
  • Travel Writing

Site Footer

Disclosure

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Privacy Policy

© 2021 · The Local Tourist · Experience the fascination of a tourist; feel the comfort of the local