Strange days have found us. The Doors nailed it in 1967.
With the unimaginable horrific devastation COVID–19 is causing, it is virtually impossible to see a silver lining, though once this is over, there are some things that I would like to see remain.
*Social distancing: Apart from the obvious health reasons, I’m enjoying people keeping their distance for once. I have never been a fan of people breathing down my neck in a supermarket queue, sitting on top of my beach towel or right next to me in a three quarters empty cinema or restaurant.
*Email more, meet less: As a freelance writer working predominantly from home, nothing much has changed for me. Formerly office-bound colleagues are realising those mind-numbingly dull five hour meetings could have been an email and that working from home has its benefits.
*Random acts of humanity: A strange thing has happened. People are generally being a lot nicer to each other, apart from the usual racist suspects, celebrities and certain presidents spouting dangerous medical “advice” and occasional nutjobs licking railway ticket machines and deliberately coughing on people. There are wonderful stories of community groups and individuals lending a hand to the vulnerable, including 99-year-old Army veteran Captain (hopefully Sir) Tom Moore in the UK, to companies previously not in the ventilator, hand sanitiser and personal protective equipment business changing tack to help out.
*Value our real heroes: Thankfully, the focus now is on the usually unappreciated workers… nurses, paramedics, hospital porters, nursing home staff, supermarket staff, school teachers, public transport workers, cleaners, delivery drivers and many more. They have emerged as the real heroes of our society. Hopefully they won’t be forgotten once we get through this.
*Environmentally friendly: The environment has rebooted. There are weird blue skies in Beijing and the waters off Venice are clear without the cruise ships vomiting pollution… and tourists. Enjoy it while it lasts.
*Creativity in captivity: Families in lockdown have invented new and old school creative ways to entertain themselves. Conversation, jigsaw puzzles and board games are back in vogue, TikTok videos about, well, just about everything are being shot.
Speaking of which, school shootings are non-existent. Hard to shoot up a school when they’re closed. So there is a slight sliver of a silver lining.
©Steve Williams 2020