It doesn't look like a pandemic when you put your phone down

The speaker shares journal entries or personal writings from March 2020, the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The entries reflect on uncertainty about lockdown duration, with references to LA's mayor suggesting potential lockdowns lasting 2+ months. The writer expresses conflicting emotions—worry about the future mixed with guilt about moments when they aren't actively worried. There's a sense of unreality permeating the observations, despite acknowledgment that major life changes were occurring. The most striking insight from these writings is the observation that the pandemic doesn't visually manifest in the everyday natural world; when one puts their phone down and stops consuming pandemic-related news and information, normal life continues—the sun shines, birds sing, dogs bark, and people talk from their homes. This creates a cognitive dissonance where the external environment appears unchanged while internal anxiety and awareness of crisis persist. The speaker reflects on reading these entries a few years later, finding them strange and poignant in retrospect.