It’s Greek to you and me: Acedia, pandemically

The no-end-in-sight pandemic has given birth to nebulous unquiet apathy. A COVID slide in schools has wiped away 70% of learning advances in schools. Athletes find themselves staring at empty calendars, no competitions in sight; with plans to enter Olympics or pro sports on indefinite hold; “unadulterated emptiness (has no) active, competitive environment(s) in which to feel at ease”.
This is acedia, an unrelenting horizonlessness going beyond anxiety or distress.  Caused by a sense of uncertainty, itself caused by a sense of futurelessness. the immobilizing fatigue of acedia comes to us from ancient Greeks, who named it in a negative way; “a-“ means without or lacking; and “kedos”, means care or concern. Those who suffer from it are at once sad and anxious, frustrated and conscious of a block in the path to growth, understanding, action, or even a tomorrow.

This presentation discusses acedia, using and applying the iterative three-part Rolfe model: What? So what? Now what? The problem will be defined and recognized, its causes considered, and possible ways to educate it away reflected upon.

What is it, what are its features, causes, effects, consequences?

So what? What actions can be taken to address it, to eliminate or attenuate its causes and its immobilizing consequences?

Now what? Synthesizing the what and the so what, participants can plan together ways to address specific aspects of acedia comprising blocks to progress that we can remove together.