Nineteen The Covid Diaries – More of the Same

Every day, reading, writing, a walk, a meal, telly. That’s it, not being able to tell if it’s Sunday or Wednesday, taking things very slowly and looking forward to the small things.  Meal times have become an occasion, the very focus of our lives. I have to remember to savour every mouthful, not for the flavour, but for the time taken to chew, to taste, to swallow.  I think of prison inmates with little variation to pass the time, how they must recalibrate themselves to a whole new setting, that is governed by meal times, exercise, games room, reading, films and lights out. How to stretch each activity and shorten each minute.  On our daily walk we have met a few surprise people, Robin, Claire, Kurt, friends and acquaintances.  Each one we have stopped passed a few minutes in conversation and moved on.  Not just a politeness and hurry on your way, but a real unman interaction and idling of time.  It could be another time, the 1920s or 30s, it could be another place, Provence or Tuscany, it’s certainly another pace.  I should take these lessons with me into my old age, savour acquaintances and interactions. After all we are all only rushing headlong towards our graves eventually.  The Queen made a speech to the nation, the first I’ve witnessed in my life. A rallying cry, that war time spirit.  “We’ll meet again,” one to raise the hearts of the very oldest amongst us.  They remember it well, Europe ablaze, as if it was yesterday.  That was when they were young, and faced the threat of death.  It is these same people that are now the most at risk, I understand the rallying cry, evoking that wartime spirit.  Then Mr Johnson got I’ll, we are all taken aback, he’s the Prime Minister, and it illustrates very clearly that no one is exempt.  Perhaps his illness is the thing which will throw the pandemic into perspective for the nation, more than anything else.  It isn’t a time to have a dig about cutbacks to our health and public services, although he has certainly played his role.  I don’t like what he and his party have done, I don’t like him, but now we are where we are.  I wish him a speedy recovery, so that he can lead us through this fight, and hope that after he will reflect, that what enables the human race to survive is amongst other things our ability to care for one another.