Aisling O’Loughlin: Lockdown and our new priorities
Is it just me or does everything look ridiculous through the prism of a lockdown? ‘Six easy ways to succeed at French Girl Foundation,’
Vogue tells me. So what? Who’s bothering with foundation these days anyway? Waste of good money.
The only people I see are the kids and my family on WhatsApp. They realise I’m not gravely ill, just not wearing make-up. Or a bra for that matter. What’s the point?
‘Vogue Williams Reveals her Top Fake Tanning Tips,’ Grazia tells me. Are you serious? Who the hell is putting on fake tan in isolation? For whom? For what? I think we’ve all done enough mirror work at this point to fully accept ourselves as we are. Repeat after me: ‘I am perfect. I am perfect. I am perfect.’ Try it! It overwrites so many doubts, so many insecurities. Do it! Do it now!
Remember, ‘I am’ – even on its own – is so powerful when you feel overwhelmed. Just be. I am. Breathe in. Breathe out. I am. Breathe in. Breathe out. Nice, isn’t it? There, there – everything is going to be ok. We’ll get through this.
Ok, back to stuff that you just can’t take seriously when holed up. ‘One Direction to mark 10-year anniversary,’ NME online tells us. Um-hmmm. What are we going to do about it? Have a concert? All get together and celebrate? Or, wait a second, we might get arrested and thrown in jail if we go – and not for crimes against music. Maybe we can have a get-together online and feel the hollowness of the pretend event.
It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. Let’s just sit and binge on Netflix. But what are we even watching? Murder and murder some more. Don’t do it! Stay sensitive. Stay wild. Yesterday I put on The Talented Mr
Ripley to show my eldest son Italy and the style and the music that movie celebrates. I can’t wait to get on the train to Italy once all this passes and witness its beauty anew. I had not intended to get as far into the movie as the bit where the mistress’s body emerges from water after she kills herself. My Patrick, who is only eight, turned his face from the screen and cried in horror. We switched the TV off. I hugged him and told him they were only acting. It was just a story, none of it was real. I thought, ‘let’s keep you sensitive for as long as we can’.
Sensitivity is a special power, one that we underestimate to our disadvantage. Just how desensitised have we become? It’s worth asking yourself. Look in the mirror and ask yourself, eyeball to eyeball. There’s plenty of time to work through this. Even if time is an illusion. I say that to myself if I feel the panic rise up. Time is an illusion. I am. I am. I am. The nuttiness of self-isolation can be pleasant. The pretence of normalcy dissolved when no-one is looking.
‘Clare Waight Keller to leave Givenchy,’ the headline reads. I hope you’ve saved money for an uncertain future, Clare. I’m glad for you, no longer a prisoner of the endless cycle of fashion trends. What’s in vogue next season? Who cares?
‘Who the hell is putting on fake tan in isolation? What’s the point?’