Hunk, chunk, drunk, and monk: how’d your pandemic go?
As regular readers know, I’ve been super-COVID-compliant. But while the pandemic is not over, it’s been such a long three years that even I've gotten very close to the end of my masked-up, sanitized, and risk-averse rope.
With the “end,” comes reflection on the upshot. With such a lengthy period of confinement, people built on their pre-existing tendencies resulting, I gather, in one of four options: hunk, chunk, drunk, and monk. Or at least according to a post in my social media feed this week.
Like I do with every typology, I’ve been quick to ponder which box I land in. (One day, I’ll write about the angst The Breakfast Club caused me, as I concluded I was in fact none of the options, although alarmingly, most like Ally Sheedy’s character. But I digress.)
All the walking means I’m less a “chunk” than before March 2020 but certainly not “hunk” territory, if that’s even possible for a woman. The only choices for me, therefore, are “monk” or “drunk.”
People who listened to me in the height of 2020 and 2021 worked hard to stifle a chuckle when I talked about how I had clearly become an introvert. Indeed BRAGGED about how COVID isolation had resulted in this magical transformation. I am, if nothing else, resilient and was prepared to make a go of the solitaire game COVID had dealt me. People laughed among themselves though because I’ve been a life-long extravert. This was confirmed for me when, as a 22 year old management trainee at the City of Toronto, I did the Myers Briggs Personality Type test (MBTI).* I came out an ENTJ - extraverted, intuitive, thinking, and — off-the-charts — judger. MBTI appealed to me right from the get-go because it was and is a way of grouping people quickly, much like the chunk/hunk/drunk/monk options or The Breakfast Club. (Beware, if you know me, you’ve likely been categorized in MBTI terms without consultation or a request for you to do the test.)
“ENTJs are born with combat booties,” said a T-shirt given me during the early 90s. It’s probably not something you should want to emblazon on your chest, but it’s right: that is how I go through life. I approach every challenge like it’s a battle and COVID precautions were no different. I barrelled into total monastic shut-down. Because of the J factor in my MBTI type - changing my mind requires Herculean effort - I became intractably mired in my own house and my own head. As recently as my birthday, when the rest of the world had allowed themselves luxuries like going out for a meal(!), having other people in their houses (!), driving in cars with friends(!), and all manner of other social frills, I was steadfastly opposed to all of these things. I feted myself with a small group of close friends in my gazebo, letting them use the facilities in my basement, masked of course, but not otherwise going inside, despite the October chill.
Late this fall, it was a new friend — ironically, a committed introvert — who jostled me from my J-ness back into the world. While the friendship has cooled, I’m grateful to him: the motivation to get out and about has stayed. I’ve never loved big crowds so haven’t gone whole-hog, but I’ve inched back towards normalcy with some meals out, a movie or two, a concert, and even two trips into Yorkdale Mall, a symbol of all the commercialism that I loathe. But there I was, masked, in the midst of all the pre-Christmas chaos.
My conclusion? Each trip out of my home feels like I’ve rounded a corner to discover an oasis in a social desert. Being parched this long has been brutal. Oh sure, I’ve had bottled water in the form of Zoom calls, outside chat-walks, alfresco drinks and dinner under heat-lamps, but sometimes having a long cool drink from the fountain of in-person conversation, indoors, all without a coat on, is just what I need. I’m coming out again as an ENTJ not the monk I said I’d become. Despite five vaccinations, I’m cautious: I’m not prepared to be with people whom I believe to be living a higher virus-risk lifestyle and the J in me will be the judge of that!
So I’ve eliminated hunk, chunk, and monk. What does this leave? Hmmmm…. Ok I admit it, the other option - drunk - is likely not far off base! Justified, of course: the sin taxes on liquor help offset the government’s lost revenue thereby helping fund the important social safety net for folks less well off through the pandemic than I’ve been. See what 17 years of legal work taught me to do…
I wish us all well as we find ourselves again, safely and - this is the hard part - without judgment. It’s been three long years.
* MBTI divides people up on four dimensions as described in detail on the MBTI website here. In short, it says:
Favourite world: Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or on your own inner world? This is called Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I).
Information: Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning? This is called Sensing (S) or Intuition (N).
Decisions: When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people and special circumstances? This is called Thinking (T) or Feeling (F).
Structure: In dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options? This is called Judging (J) or Perceiving (P).
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