Week 20
This is week 20 of 20 weeks of me posting specifically about the CoVID-19 crisis. It started out with my feelings about living through the crisis, not as one who was profoundly affected but as one of the passengers. What was most memorable really had nothing to do with the virus and I’m fairly sure had little or nothing to do with the lockdown. It was the persistent sunshine that became a prominent thread until the weather broke. Though almost certainly coincidental — the last few years have given us more sunshine in May than August — the persistent sunshine ran through conversations much like the blindness in Day of the Triffids. However it was no coincidence that air and water quality improved as industry shut down and travel was minimised.
As people locked down and cut physical ties during the weeks long drought, with very rare and brief showers, acted as a canon, providing a constant that helped people maintain focus. It also meant that the hour we were allowed out for physical and mental exercise was indeed a pleasant highlight and not just a concession. Apparently I’m not the only one who fully utilised the opportunity while it was a concession but became more complacent when the restrictions were lifted. It does appear that we like boundaries and tend to fill the available space when its restrictions are presented to us.
Many of us also became more inventive and creative and not only where it was necessary. I learned new songs, not because I was bored — I was fully occupied — but because I was more focused and took the trouble of working out the chords and finger styles. I believe my writing has much improved, also because my thoughts were funneled through a CoVid filter. Writing every day was something I probably wouldn’t have committed to otherwise. Politics has also been turbulent which, again, is coincidental but, nonetheless, pertinent. I quickly ran out of new ways to describe days of sunshine and physical isolation but the politics behind and beside the CoVID crisis gave me more than enough material.
When CoVID hit, my life was in crisis — or at least my mind was in turmoil. I looked back in my life…
