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2021 Lockdown — Day 1
Embracing the Challenge
I wrote every day for 60 days during last year’s lockdown and for 20 weeks, writing once a week after my 60 day stint. At that point life had moved on from lockdown. Restrictions were no longer a novelty and as the year went on we got used to things being radically different for the foreseeable future. Talk of life not going back to normal turned to dealing with whatever restrictions were in place at the time. I’m not sure anyone now has a sense of what normal is though maybe that’s a good thing.
In March last year I was getting pushback for being hyper-critical of the government at a time when people were coming to terms with the pandemic and looking for reassurance rather than reasons to be concerned. Compliance with the restrictions was high and it seemed citizens were more than happy to give the government the benefit of the doubt though less charity was given to those who broke (or stretched) the rules. Since then it’s become more and more apparent that, rather than learning on the job, the government have been more interested in PR than actually fixing anything. Confidence is now pretty mixed and fears are based on experience rather than hearsay.
The first lockdown was marked by consistent sunshine. It felt weird to me because it mirrored the surreal nature of the crisis — almost as if the sky had caught onto…
