I do not want to seem insensitive about the COVID-19 pandemic, which is in its third year and has killed far more than 6 million people worldwide. I knew a good family man who died from the coronavirus during its initial outbreak. Some of my favorite jazz musicians also succumbed to the virus, including pianist Barry Harris, saxophonist Lee Konitz, pianist Ellis Marsalis, guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, and trumpeter Wallace Roney, as well as the legendary playwright Terrence McNally. Many terrific small businesses, including restaurants and jazz clubs, have gone under due to the economic strains of COVID. I also feel fortunate that all I have lost is money, which, as the saying goes, isn't everything.
In fact, my health has improved since early 2020. Before then, I would get laryngitis twice a year, sometimes more, sometimes leading to bronchitis. These ailments have disappeared from my system. I attribute this reversal of fortune to fewer rides on buses and trains in proximity to germ-carrying commuters and fewer handshakes with people attending my live classes. And health, as the saying goes, is everything.
I can think of other big benefits of quarantining at home. Since March 2020, I probably have read more than I had in the previous decade. I have been collecting books for years that I promised myself I would eventually read. As my writing consulting business grew increasingly successful, I began to think the only hope for reading those books would be retirement, incapacitation, or incarceration, but I was not planning on any of those circumstances. The pandemic offered me found time. I read scores of novels, short story collections, philosophical treatises, biographies, histories, poetry volumes, and plays. I enjoyed the time-consuming process of being transfixed by chilling chapters, rereading powerful paragraphs and scintillating sentences to examine the writers' rhetorical strategy, and delighting in their wonderful word choices.
I am convinced that these exhilarating experiences have made me a better reader, a more powerful writer, a more informed writing teacher, and a more sensitive writing critic. By the way, my business has coming roaring back this year. Patience born from using idle time productively has paid off. The point is of this post is that you can use waiting time, from standing in line at the bank to getting through a pandemic, by entertaining and educating yourself through reading. When your turn comes, you will wonder where the time went.
