At least I'm not alone in wondering when this will all end and we can go outside and be with one another.

But as we do our best to stay home and flatten the curve, I keep thinking about a quote I've heard from Blaise Pascal: "All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone."

Smarter people than I could probably talk your ear off about what the French mathematician really meant, but lately it seems pretty obvious. As humans we're bored and anxious and uncomfortable by the droning of our own minds. We're compelled to get outside our skulls and be distracted from the existential puzzle of life.

We like to forget we're animals too. Just because we can order a couple dozen pizzas to where we sleep doesn't mean we still don't have instincts inside us. Human beings only started staying put and planting crops about 10,000 years ago. A quick Google search tells me Homo sapiens have been around for maybe 200,000 years. You do the math.

There may not have been toilet paper in the Africa of millenniums ago, but the trigger is the same, right? If you strip away our current championship title as Top of the Food Chain, you might recall we were constantly fleshy snacks of the ancient world. For other animals or disease. Being afraid and vigilant was just like breathing. Cause if it wasn't, you weren't.

We're caught between these two forces: the animal and the human. When you start to meditate, you notice this. There are all these thoughts that bubble up at an overwhelming rate, with emotions and opinions attached, and then there is something inside of you that can take the time to notice them. You can take a breathe and make space to see the difference.

No one explained this duality better, in my humble opinion, than David Foster Wallace during the Kenyon College commencement in 2005. In a speech that has since been titled "This is Water", Wallace said:

"As I’m sure you guys know by now, it is extremely difficult to stay alert and attentive, instead of getting hypnotized by the constant monologue inside your own head (may be happening right now). Twenty years after my own graduation, I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed. Think of the old cliché about 'the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master.' "

We can panic and worry, or we can feel lucky to see this ability to sit quietly in a room alone as an opportunity. You don't need to write a novel, or learn how to do the splits in your living room, but you can start to notice how your mind works. You can make the choice to make the most of this, whatever that means. Because, after all, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

With that being said, you can distract your monkey mind with some of my best finds this past week:

Off the heels of Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks on Netflix, I've been diving deep into The Racka Racka library. As their YouTube channel says, they're "Wannabe Film-makers on a rampage!" This is the best Nerf battle I've ever seen.

Curious about the elusive fate of happiness? Check out Karsten Runquist's take on Spongebob's Darkest Episode (video).

Austin Kleon has a simple rule and I like to follow it: Don’t think too much about your life after dinnertime.

Finished Tiger King too quickly? I saw Tremors for the first time this past week on Netflix and it was great! Like Jaws in the desert, plus Kevin Bacon!

Working from home and sick of the same old lo-fi tracks? The Fresh Prince has you covered with Will Smith chillwave.

Until next time...