Here is something I never dreamed of seeing ahead of turning 40. For that matter, an enigma I never imagined in my life time. It makes skydiving look like I was utterly rude and taking the piss. This is the stuff only nightmares and apocalyptic Hollywood is good for.
It’s the new big C that has been sweeping our Earth this year. It too is like a cancer. This pandemic has, unlike past cruelties, no colour. No green ooze, no black crosses, no crimson tears. This devilry is colourless, invisible and odourless. But in it’s wake it leaves a carnage. A plague on all our houses.
I read that the most educated guess on how the Black Death in Europe came to end after nearly 2 centuries of affliction, was through the implementation of quarantines. Uninfected people would remain in their homes. Safe. Only leaving when it was absolutely necessary to do so.
And so here we are again, and thanking ahead for the marvel of modern medicine, we hope to be out of this metaphorical cyclone once a vaccine has been created. If one is ever created. Perhaps it will be a socially different new world forever more. Who knew that such a thing would complicate our lives in such a profound way? Or is it uncomplicated. I’d answer, but my head is scrambled thinking about it.
There we all were, sitting on this rock in space, slowly, myopically going about our business. Quietly churning up the planet. And then this C comes and stops us in our tracks. Tells us to get the hell home or else. And we winced at the difficulty. At the home school, at the work juggle, at the lack of friends, family, connection, at the stress, at the lack of sleep, at the quiet, at the noise, the food shopping, the scarcity on every level. We ponder. We hold our nerve. We realise that we’re lucky. Some of us are not ill. We are here. We’re not in the places in the world where health care is forever inadequate. Where war has crippled the infrastructure. We quieten. We paint rainbows. We simplify. We get back to core values. And Mother Earth breathes. And yes, tragically we loose people. But not most. And we realise there is value in difficulty.
But we’ve been doing that a while now, and it’s giving us ants in our pants. Our leader’s are spinning rhetoric and through new slogans at us and yes, though we want to go out for longer, we want to see more than one other person at a time.
AND WE WANT HUGS!!!
But we must steady ourselves. As the PM said, sometimes the journey down the mountain is harder than the way up. Like he’s a mountain climber. But I can tell you, if you relax too much you can break your knees on that climb down. Royally bash ’em up forever. And so we must crawl and creep and go ever so softly, softly. And keep our courage and forgive ourselves and continue to bugger on. If our Grandparents could do it, so can we and all that. “Necessity is the mother of invention” after all, even without clear direction. Perhaps this time will spark unknown creativity in all of us. I’m still awaiting my hit on that…
40 for 40 