Keeping a Perspective

It’s the third week of lockdown with the Easter weekend and good weather approaching. What a crazy situation. The PM is himself in hospital with the virus, the police are trying to ‘encourage’ social distancing and the Queen has made a rare TV appearance promising, like Vera Lyn, that ‘we’ll all meet again’. When is that, we’re all asking; soon, in a month’s time, longer......?

Trying to keep a sense of perspective depends on your particular set of circumstances. Pardon me if that’s an obvious statement, but I guess the question of whether this is ‘just another flu and why are we making such a fuss about it’ isn’t forefront in the minds of the doctors, nurses, care workers and others at the ‘front line’ dealing with the constant flow of Covid-19 sufferers into hospital high dependency beds of which there aren’t enough. There isn’t enough protective equipment for them either.

From the standpoint of a politician, the economic perspective, countering criticisms about how the crisis is being handled and prospects of being re-elected after the crisis is over must figure pretty large in the mind, I suspect.

If you’re a parent, concerns about whether you’re doing enough for your children’s education and well-being must weigh somewhat, as well as financial prospects going forward.

If you’re elderly, vulnerable and self-isolating, one’s mortality will surely feature quite a lot in one’s thoughts.

If you’re a runner, an athlete, a surfer, a walker, bird watcher, or whatever, it’s a draconian measure - an infringement of liberty to be prevented from a run in the park, a swim in the sea, an hour surfing the waves, a walk in the woods. “What are the chances that we aren’t giving away our freedoms in the longer term?” many ask. 

Every one is concerned for different reasons and there are many ideas about what is ‘really’ going on; they pop up on social media every time I look at it. There’s the idea, for instance, that 5G is the culprit so masts are being destroyed; or this is a virus that we’ve known about for a long time so this is fake news; or the virus is a creation that has been deliberately let loose so that a nation or some evil capitalists can take advantage through the stock-market. We can be very imaginative with our conspiracy theories and the human mind is certainly capable of coming up with a good collection of them.

The fact of the matter is that for whatever reason, something has happened, we weren’t properly prepared and no one knows where it’s going. We’re all trying to figure it out as we go along, including the politicians, scientists, the economists, the health service providers, suppliers and transporters, farmers, airlines and travel services, businesses large and small, teachers, families and individuals. 

So......to keep a sense of perspective, what is the bigger picture that the journalist, Jonathan Cook, in his blog, asks us to remember? A phrase that my great-grandmother has passed down through the generations is “There will be wars and rumours of wars, but let ye not be troubled” and I guess ‘crises’ could fit nicely into that instruction, too. Another of these inherited sayings is “Count your blessings”, as well as “Don’t worry, it’ll all come out in the wash”. The wisdom of those generations filters through as I seek perspective, listening to the birds and feeling the sun as it shines through the window.

This will pass.