(NYTimes.com)
Daniel Thorson went into a silent retreat in mid-March, meditating through 75 coronavirus news cycles, Boris Johnson’s hospitalization, social distancing and sourdough starter. Now he’s catching up.
On the morning of May 23, Daniel Thorson rejoined society after an absence of two and a half months.
Mr. Thorson, a podcaster and enthusiastic online philosopher, had also missed 75 news cycles. And so, less than two hours after ending his silent retreat, Mr. Thorson logged back onto Twitter.
“Did I miss anything?” he wrote.
The last week was a strange one for Mr. Thorson, 33, a staff member at the Monastic Academy, as he tried to catch up with the changes that had taken place during his absence.
He learned of Boris Johnson’s hospitalization — and his recovery. He learned that meatpacking plants had emerged as pockets of infection and death. He learned that his cousin had met her new love interest on a social-distance dating website. And that there is now such a thing as a Zoom channel devoted to ecstatic dance.
“While I was on retreat, there was a collective traumatic emotional experience that I was not a part of,” he said, on the second day. “To what degree do I have to piece it back together?”