Listen to Kim McNeil's conversation with host Catherine Orer as they paint a new picture of art and mental health.

I admitted last week to having experienced an existential COVID crisis. Why am I here? What’s the point of me being here? What’s the point of anyone being here unless of course, you’re a physician, nurse, healthcare worker, grocery store worker, sanitary worker, or any other essential service worker. Bill Murray has an opinion. Not about me specifically, although I’m sure he’d have lots to say, but about our current situation.

The first tangible response I had to the pandemic was, “I am unimportant”. Frontline healthcare workers and essential workers, they matter. Everyone in the middle needs to stay out of the way. I am part of the middle. Cue the existential dread. If you had the choice of being stranded on a desert island with a doctor or a visual artist/writer/yogi/ whatever the hell I am, who would you chose?

This is the second time in so many months that I’ve written about a Japanese term. Admittedly I know little about Japanese culture. I do love Whistler sushi, however. Spice agedashi tofu aside, in this time of COVID-19 I couldn’t help but think about the concept of hikikomori, or “pulling inward”.

“What would Dr. Hinshaw do?” t-shirts have hit the Internet. Dr. Hinshaw is Alberta’s CMOH for those of you not familiar with her. This reminded me of my own brilliant t-shirt idea I had over a decade ago. There’s a lesson attached to the idea and the lesson is still relevant today in this time of COVID-19.

The COVID-19 outbreak is unsettling. Few of us have experienced anything like it in our lifetime. When it comes to people’s behaviour as of late, I’ve found myself see-sawing between anger and curiosity.

My favourite Latin saying translates to "through hardship to the stars". My brother, who knows a thing or two about history, told me these pieces of space trivia related to the saying: The Royal Air Force (RAF) uses a derivative of the maxim as their motto.  Per ardua ad astra, or "through adversity to the stars", speaks perfectly to the sacrifice and glory of war.