Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
It’s been a while since I posted and the World is now a very different place. Something microscopic has managed to stop society and life as we know it. This post is a collection of thoughts and musings as I’ve worked through COVID-19.
It took me a long time to get my head around COVID-19. I had many questions. How is this different to the flu? Is it as bad as they make out? Is it worth stopping life for? Will we have COVID-20 and 21 and isolation becomes an annual thing?
I found the information conflicting and unclear. From our Prime Minister for instance “This is a very serious disease, but I’m going to the footy on the weekend.”
After some good content released by the BBC I began to understand the threat this disease poses. Due to its higher rate of transmission compared to normal flu, this leads to a potential overloading of the healthcare system.
After seeing this I understood the lock down and why it may be necessary. Then I began to wonder if we were locking down hard enough.
Mum’s birthday was the hardest day of this so far. Not being able to give her a hug and share a meal on her birthday I found extremely hard.
In the end fair play to the Government they seem to have got it right so far and we’ve stopped the disease from overrunning our hospital system. This allows us flexibility in the next steps. Now however comes the tricky part getting society moving again. This is a job that I do not envy in any way as any decision has inherent risk. Good luck to those in charge!
It will be most interesting to see what comes out of this. In many ways this is a chance to push reset on society. Change the system and fix the broken bits.
I’ve had many thoughts on this. The following is a collection of them.
I’ve noticed people being outside more everywhere I run I see people, families out walking, running, riding (even in the early hours of the morning 4am!). I hope this is something people value and keep doing when we go back to “normal.” Being active gives obvious physical benefits but I also think it makes us more compassionate and kind people.
The environment has had a huge chance to breathe. Look at the satellite data from China if you don’t believe me. Hopefully this will help us all realise that we must do a better job preserving and protecting our environment.
Whilst thinking about the environment though. What happens with single use plastics? We’ve been on a crusade against them. We’ve been doing a good job reducing their use. But now people are using disposable gloves, masks, sterilizing devices and many other things. Can we continue reducing the use of these? Or do we go back to increasing our landfill to stay clean. Will people want disposable straws again as they don’t trust one that’s been washed.
Whilst thinking about hygiene. I’m concerned we’ve accelerated the Genesis of the real super bug. The one with death rates of 25%. The one they warned us about that was resistant to antibacterial, antiviral and other drugs. Experts said we were too clean and needed germs. Well now we sterilise everything all the time and I don’t see that stopping quickly.
Do we start to consider what it is to live life well? Is sitting in our homes well lived? Is dying on a respirator better than dying at home? Do people terminally ill want to be separated from their families to protect them from something, meaning they cannot spend their final days the way they really want seeing their loved ones.
As a society have we become to safe? In protecting life at all costs and reducing all risk have we now forgotten what it truly means to live. Risk makes us feel alive its why people jump out of planes. Do we need to assess our relationship with risk and reward?
People have seen the values that truly matter through this and I hope that they will carry this forward post COVID-19 craziness.
I will be interested to see what happens to social welfare as we have done more than ever before and hopefully this can make us more caring for those less privileged in society.
What happens to capitalism will change? Do we continue to want to consume, consume, consume or do we now step back. Do we think we maybe have driven everything to the edge and we’ve seen how fragile the system we’ve made is.
Do we now give more consideration to the 5 million children who die of malnutrition every year (many more than from COVID-19). Do we help them?
Do we start to think about health wider. And look at our lifestyle to reduce lifestyle illness (diabetes, heart disease etc). Will this lead to a society that makes healthier choices?
This is a chance to reset and hopefully we do it well. I hope that we don’t go back to “business as usual.” Because many parts of the system we’ve been running around in suck. So why not try to fix those.
This disease has shown we can act quickly and decisively. We have shown nothing is impossible and be bold in creating society as we move forward. We just spent $130 billion trying to keep the country afloat. $4 billion on the environment now doesn’t sound like a big number.
COVID-19 has clearly shown individuals true character. As one person posted on Twitter.
“The assholes have become bigger assholes and the compassionate have become more compassionate.”
I hope I’m in the later and not an ass. Maybe ask my wife privately for her opinion.
Personally I wish I could do more but unsure how to practically help. If people have suggestions please leave a comment on the blog.
This has shown what people trust and don’t trust. Who people trust and don’t trust.
Its shown society at its worst as people hoarded toilet paper and pushed old ladies with walking frames in supermarkets, people being racist in the extreme. But its also shown society at its best as we’ve banded together to keep people fed people and provide for other needs.
I’ll finish this post with something that’s really made me smile during all this.
At the start of the tougher restrictions my wife took my daughter for a walk. We had heard about the “Teddy Bear Hunts” that were going on in other communities so said to my daughter,”We’re going on a bear hunt!”
For those unaware many people have been putting teddy bears in their windows as a game for children as they walk around given there is little other activity for them. People have also been doing this with rainbows.
During the walk they only spotted 2 teddy bears. The next day my daughter decided to make some “letters” with Mummy’s help. So with the computer they made some flyers, my daughter cut them out and hand drew teddy bears on them.
On a family walk my daughter delivered these in letterboxes around our neighbourhood.
The next day there were many more teddy bears out. Some people printed off teddy bear pictures and displayed them with my daughter’s flyer! This really brightened her day. She went home, made more letters and did a second delivery. Now you can’t walk past 2 houses without seeing a teddy bear. People who’s houses are not visible from the street have placed teddy’s near mailboxes so they can be seen.
I was so happy my daughter’s effort was rewarded. The simple act of people reading the flyer made by a little girl and putting a teddy bear out has shown me humanity isn’t so bad.
So thank you to all the people who are helping in this from doctors and nurses, to politicians, supermarket workers, bakers, cleaners, garbage truck drivers, delivery drivers, food bank and everyone I’ve missed. Also thank you to those who’ve put a teddy bear out as maybe we cannot do very much else. But we can brighten the lives of small children and in lighting up their lives they can light up ours.
Thanks for staying with me on this random collection of thoughts!
Biff the Runner 