COVID19

Currently as of Thursday 21 May 2020 @ 16:09 there has been for the UK 36,042 deaths associated with the virus, 250,908 lab-confirmed cases and for the rest of the world inc UK data its 5,067,579 cases & 332,711 deaths ¹. So its a very real threat and has had a significant impact not only on families but countries with some close to the brink of bankruptcy and being forced to chose letting people live in lockdown and to continue the disease control measures or sending them back to work and possibly die. Despite all this, for me personally, the enforced lockdown has been brilliant.

Perhaps sadly in some peoples eyes i’ve had to make no changes to my personal life, there has been no loss nor sense of isolation. I’ve had time to work on my projects, the garden, the house, continue on my own journey of learning as well as become more self-reliant ie no dropbox, reduced google etc

I’ve never been one for the social scene and am comfortable with the multitude of voices in my head for company so to be shut inside the confines of my home & garden was no trouble. OK i’ve not been furloughed the entire time and undertook several weeks of working from home supporting both the UK and European operations but with this there was no pressure associated with the smalltalk needed when present with people and definitely no time vs traffic pressure to meet the Victorian workhouse ethic of you must clock-on.

When furloughed properly there was simply no pressure at all.

I still woke before 0700 but the day was mine and there was no time constraints, no rolling of the normally loaded dice to see what the M42, A38 or M6 was going to be like on a journey to a factory, office or airport. I could react and change plans to suit the weather which has been for the most part magnificent. Even when officially working at home i was more productive both personally and professionally but alas slowly like with the rest of Europe the UK is being forced into sending people back to work and my time is becoming shorter and in all honesty i’ll miss it. I already see this as perhaps a trial of what retirement could be like should i be lucky enough to last that long and be healthy enough to enjoy it.

COVID19 is possibly here to stay, whether we the general public ever get to understand the real reason for its existence with all the politics and conspiracy theories that surround us I’d say is doubtful, it sure isnt 5G but is it down to the human consumption of anything & everything living, wet markets, biological experimentation? who knows, there are lessons to be learnt though but will we?

Its been an interesting “experiment” civilisation as we have come to it know teeters on a knife edge it’s been proven by COVID that it doesnt take much for the veneer of civility to disappear and the true nature of the human beast to be shown or to point our economic frailty. It’s perhaps a little ironic that in this time of idiocy with that lunatic Trump and our own Brexit what the world actually needs is more global cooperation not the closing of borders and the introversion of countries.

Still with COVID i’m reminded of something i’ve long enjoyed listening to & reading - War of the Worlds

“Perhaps I am a man of exceptional moods. I do not know how far my experience is common. At times I suffer from the strangest sense of detachment from myself and the world about me; I seem to watch it all from the outside, from somewhere inconceivably remote, out of time, out of space, out of the stress and tragedy of it all.”

and perhaps there is hope

These germs of disease have taken toll of humanity since the beginning of things–taken toll of our prehuman ancestors since life began here. But by virtue of this natural selection of our kind we have developed resisting power; to no germs do we succumb without a struggle

For those whom lockdown has been a painful experience

The day seemed, by contrast with my recent confinement, dazzlingly bright, the sky a glowing blue. A gentle breeze kept the red weed that covered every scrap of unoccupied ground gently swaying. And oh! the sweetness of the air!