COVID - May 2021

 May 2021
Great Britain - Cornwall

We have entered the third phase of our lockdown easing of restrictions just a few days ago.  We can now meet up to 6 people from two households indoors, eat in, go to the cinema.  The end is in sight.

Instead of hundreds, thousands dying daily, we have less than 20.  We might be at the end of that tunnel at long last.

For 14 months we have been a World gripped by a virus - one that not only kills, but disables and destroys - via long-term after effects. via fear, by dividing nations. Rich vs Poor, Black vs White.  But the virus doesn't care who it infects.  I'm not here to discuss social injustice - this isn't a soapbox - it's just a page to write upon.

Over a year of not eating out and feeling safe.  Not going to the cinema.  No holidays abroad.
Wearing masks in shops.  Hand sanitiser.  Washing hands more than usual.
Walking into the road to pass someone on the pavement.  Not shaking hands or hugging.
Working from home.

I am a non-sociable person.  I don't get out much - so for me a year of lockdown is a year of not having to make excuses why I can't go to the work's night out.  But even I have found that it has affected me in ways I find disturbing.  If friends come by to say Hi now, I still keep my distance.  The thought of having someone in my home is scary.  I want to wipe everything that might be contaminated with anti-bacterial wipes.

This isn't going away any time soon!

When we talk about holidays - the thought of going abroad, getting on a crowded plane with self-contained air is like asking me to lick a petri dish pulled out of a CDC incubator.  Why?  Not only do I not want to catch this virus, but I wouldn't want to spread it either.  

Watching TV series now, like NCIS and Station 19 and Grays Anatomy - all filmed during COVID, with them all wearing masks and social distancing - we'll re-watch these in years to come and say "Oh yeah, that was the pandemic" - and we'll forget that we had a year of isolation and fear, buying everything online and not going out unless we had to. Of people all over the world dying in the thousands every day.

I am humbled by how well we've coped with this.  How well we have adapted and how hard we have worked to keep it under control, and how hard we have worked to keep things going in the face of this world-wide life-threatening virus.  I am proud of the people that have striven to protect us, treat us when we're ill, develop a vaccine, secure jobs, keep industry going, keep the economy afloat, maintain our way of life as best they can.

I want to say Thank You - to every single person out there that did something - no matter how small, to keep us going, that kept us safe, throughout this bleakest of bleak, harsh, devastating years.

Thank You!

Isolation

I was driving along the other day when I think I discovered something. I was watching how other drivers were so intent on their own little bubble of being that they were (on the whole) totally oblivious to the other road users - like the car waiting to pull out for, oh, forever. Or the car behind flashing its lights because the one in front's indicators were still flashing two miles down the road.

Then I realised it's not just drivers. It's just people. The guy in the queue in front of me dropped some cash on the floor, so I picked it up and tapped him on the shoulder, and, well, several taps later and a loudish "excuse me" and he finally acknowledges me.

Then there are the people that stand right in the doorway having a chat with a friend - totally oblivious to the hoards of other people all trying to squeeze through.

There are the people that insist on getting on the bus whilst people are trying to get off.

And so I have come to the conclusion that, it seems, most people do not see, or know, or care what goes on outside their little bubble. The rest of the world isn't real. The people walking by are just extras in the background of the film that's playing outside of their peripheral vision.

Now obviously I'm generalising - I know for the most part, we all live in our bubbles, and we all venture our consciousness outside of them occasionally, maybe even frequently. But my theory is people rarely pay the slightest bit of attention to other people unless it's likely to impact upon them, because they're totally wrapped up in their own little world.

I don't mean this to sound harsh. I'm not saying people are selfish, or self-centred. I'm just saying that, well, they don't know the guy that's been waiting to pull out of that side road for the last 5 minutes, and anyway, they're in a hurry themselves, and why should they be the one to slow down and give the guy a break? No one would bother doing it for them, right?

I invite your comments - because I personally would like to change the world. I would like to see more cooperation, more giving way, more consideration for others. Less being so wrapped up in our own worlds that we forget there are 6 billion other people out there too, all struggling day to day the same as we are - and that maybe, the next time you're waiting to pull out of that side road, the person that lets you out just read this the day before!