Photographed 7th May 2020 - 46 days into lockdown
We have now been living with the lockdown for a considerable number of weeks.Sebastian commenced home schooling, a full timetable each day fortunate that he attends a school with excellent IT systems that can provide remote learning. Myself, I retired last year and have spent much of the time during the lockdown getting our garden back into shape after the recent work we did on the house. Claudia, has done the once weekly outing to the shops for food, aiming to arrive early to avoid the crowds, and other than walks and bike rides, we haven’t been outside of the village. Thanks to today’s telecommunications, we have stayed in touch with family and friends, including in Colombia and Mexico where many family members work in the medical profession. And Sebastian has used IT to the full to while away his time with school friends.
In addition, we live in a beautiful and friendly village, are fortunate enough to have a garden to enjoy, and thankfully so far, we, family and friends have all remained free of the virus.
Yes, we have missed not going out and socialising, but our restrictions are a small price when compared to the suffering of others. The news stories of pain and loss have at times been heart-wrenching and I can only imagine that a lot of people are having to struggle through living with a lot of economic and social hardship –the consequences of which are likely to remain with us well beyond the pandemic.
And then you hear of the endless lengths and generosity some people are going to, risking themselves to protect and help others – that is incredible.
We should never diminish the cost and misery, but I am sure there will also be some good that arises from this pandemic. We have seen improvements already to the environment with less pollution, and endless acts of kindness and compassion, and hopefully we can build on that for the future. And in the longer-term, I suspect other good will also become apparent that we can’t envisage today, some of which may prove to be quite surprising.
Written 7 May 2020.
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