After almost two years of being by ourselves at home, we are back in society. Things that brought us joy before the pandemic, like seeing friends or going to a concert, feel weird and draining.
As people hover in this liminal space between the normalcy of pre-pandemic life and the continuously shifting protocol in the United States, they need the language to express what they are feeling. Fortunately, social media was already creating that language.
At the end of October, a 13-year-old pug named Noodle took over the internet. Millions of people turned to TikTok and Twitter to see if Noodle would prop himself up in the morning, declaring that day a “Bones Day,” or if he would flop back into his dog bed, making it a “No Bones Day.”
This Groundhog-Day-like ritual does not predict when winter will end — rather it sets the mood for the day to come. Simply put, “Bones Days” are good days, and “No Bones Days” are self-care days. To date, Noodle’s gift of prophecy has caught the attention of sports teams, state governments, and major news networks.
While the language of bones and no bones is new, before there were bones, there were spoons.
Disabled and chronically ill people have been using language similar to that of Noodles for over 15 years. In 2003, Christine Miserandino created the Spoon Theory. In her essay of the same name, she posited that everyone has a set number of spoons each day which represent finite units of energy. She theorized that disabled and chronically ill people have fewer spoons and have to use more spoons for tasks where others may not require any. For Miserandino, who lives with lupus, just getting out of bed requires one spoon, whereas an able-bodied or non-chronically ill person could use one spoon on their entire morning routine.
However, the Spoon Theory is not exclusive to disabled and chronically ill people. In fact, thinking about one’s “social battery” in terms of spoons could be a way to process how energy and capacity for interaction have changed since March 2020.
Readjusting to life post-pandemic will take time. We ought to recognize these feelings as we remerge and Noodles and Miserando offer us a way to do so. We need to cut ourselves some slack. We may have more No Bones Days than we did pre-pandemic, and some tasks may require more spoons than before — and that’s completely fine. As we enter finals season, remember this: ask for an extension, cancel plans, take a self-care day. Grades and clubs are not more important than your well-being. Listen to your body and your mind — with or without the help of a pug on the internet.
