OPINION:
"When are we going to be allowed to live a normal f***ing life again? I wanna be at work with my friends. I am so f***ing depressed at home. I wanna go get coffees with mates and get hammered with everyone at friday drinks and I wanna go get coffees with people and lunch and have a random drink every now and then. It's easy for you. You get to go into your office and see people every day. Cause apparently ya f***ing essential. You lucky c*** I don't get nothing but constant hassles from my kids. It's years into this f***ing crap and once again I can't go in and do my f***ing job with other humans. I am missing out on my f***ing life."
A friend sent me that message last week. At 133 words, it's the longest I've ever received. Passionate too. Twelve F words and one C. It was also a massive overshare. The text I sent her first read: "Are you watching the second season of Righteous Gemstones yet? It's so good.''
Her giant reply not only failed to answer my question and lacked structure, it mentioned coffee and booze twice in one circular sentence. I responded with this quote from Epectitus: "It is impossible that happiness, and yearning for what is not present should ever be united."
She didn't respond. I texted "is it cool if I use your first text in my Herald column? I won't use your name and I'll pretend you're female so no one will know it's you". She replied "yep". While her text had its failings, it did illustrate the frustration a lot of people feel towards continued Covid restrictions. She could have said everything she needed to in four words: "working from home sucks".