David Gumbrell
2 min readApr 1, 2020

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Dawn of a New Day

Well, it is the dawn of a new day, but also that was the slogan of the 1939 New York World’s Fair, the first exposition to be based on the future that allowed ‘all visitors to take a look at the world of tomorrow’. As part of the exhibition, they also captured 1939 in a time capsule, called the Westinghouse Time Capsule, that is not due to be open for 5000 years! What did they think then that would exemplify them? Well, the metal tube contains, amongst other things:

Writings by Albert Einstein;

Copies of Life Magazine;

A Mickey Mouse watch;

A Gillette safety razor;

A kewpie doll;

A dollar in change;

And a pack of Camel cigarettes!

Self-care for any respecting American in 1939, but maybe not so relevant for the finder of the capsule who breaks it open in 6939?

Another success story of the same event was the food offerings of the Swedish Pavilion in the ‘Three Crown Restaurant’. On offer was a Smörgåsbord, a Scandinavian word that associates with a buffet, or self-selected, of as many of dishes as one wishes. This was the first time for many that they could sample this native food and it was a Nordic hit that has forever become associated with a whole range of anything, food or otherwise.

In the same way, we are faced with a Smörgåsbord of choices about everything in the modern world. What we spend our money on, how we spend our time, who we spend that time with (well, usually more choice on this than now). We can fill our shelves with the writings of our favourite authors, tomes of people teaching us about ‘this’ and about ‘that’; we can buy magazines to offer us dreams of alternative lifestyles, adventurous destinations; we can purchase a mickey mouse watch — an iWatch version of that retro classic to impress our mates!

But what do we actually need in this ‘all-you-can-want’ buffet of life?

When is enough ‘enough’ to feel satiated?

Do we constantly pick at the food continuously?

Have we a set limit?

In the world of unlimited data, we phone more; in the world of all-you-can-eat buffets, we eat more; if we sign up to a gym, we go more (well, for the first few weeks anyway). We seem to want that infinity, yet we don’t really know how to limit ourselves and set structures when faced with the challenge that is being in that situation. Indeed, as Buzz Lightyear, once eloquently put it, we want to go to ‘infinity and beyond’.

As we build our During-Covid (DC) routines, we need to limit ourselves, to set structures and routines. In this ‘all-the-time-in-the-world’ situation, many of us are struggling to fill that time and just self-selecting that Season Two binge watch. But good self-care is about variety of tasks to fill the time. It is about satisfying our hunger with varied activities that fill you from the ‘Dawn of a New Day, to dusk’.

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David Gumbrell

Author and education consultant. Wanting to share ideas through selected words.