Sheltering in Place

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Les Firestein has been writing and building since his teens. As a writer Les ran some notable and notorious TV shows (In Living Color) and before that wrote for national newspapers and was the editor of The National Lampoon. Les will occasionally write about architecture and design for the Journal because he cares deeply about it. Until recently Les was a charisma coach for Mike Bloomberg.

Unsolitary Confinement and Other Considerations in the Age of Coronavirus The writer, a veteran of working from home, shares field tested advice and observations regarding unsolitary confinement.

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No Medical Card Needed Y ou’ve gotta give it up for humans. With the exception of the Dark Ages, we’re always trying to figure out better ways to nest and adapt those nests to what life throws at us. But how we shelter has never had to absorb so much change… or so much stuff… so quickly as now. Our homes are bulging with Costco stockpiles and bursting with humanity and desperately trying to morph fast enough in response to the coronavirus pandemic. How we live in our homes and what we’re stuffing into them says much about how our species adapts… and how it doesn’t.

When it comes to what’s driving the rearrangement of our shelter, I feel like it’s not so much the fear of contracting COVID as it is the fear of unsolitary confinement. When we tied the knot we all assumed that the knot would not be glued in place and the bonds of marriage were metaphorical rather than actual. All our vows said stuff about “sickness and in health” but no one’s marriage vows said squat about togetherness 24/7/365. Not to mention the two of you never leaving the house. Like ever.

And so it was that the internet lit up last week when the actress Jada Pinkett Smith said that lockdown has taught her she “doesn’t really know (her husband) Will Smith at all” and that right now, despite 20 years of

marriage, they’re “just trying to build a friendship.”

Within the same interview (actually it was kind of the interview version of a selfie) Ms Pinkett Smith referred to the popular meme “You can’t spell divorce without COVID.” Turns out long-term marrieds like the Smiths are finding it hard to cohabitate, even in 20,000 square feet, so folks are trying to modify their homes not just to save their marriages, but provide separation between Tik-Toks and Zoomers, Twitterati and Boomers. I guess the one place we DO want social distancing is inside the home. Don’t look for Jada Pinkett in a “tiny home” anytime soon.

Last I checked, there is no ‘ohm’ in home.

For me and my wife it’s actually not that bad. Not because we’ve figured out the keys to a successful marriage. It’s just that as two writers, sometimes with the added burden of co-working, we’re used to seeing too much of each other and have pleasantly moved on to mutual Stockholm syndrome. The big difference for us in the pan