COVID-19 DIARIES. DAY 17- PINK MOON
Watchet, Somerset, UK, 8th April 2020 23:09
Today is exactly 100 days since the Chinese authorities first reported cases of the novel coronavirus on 31st December 2019. The universe has gifted us with a Pink Supermoon tonight. It is shinning brightly outside my window as I write days.
100 days is not a long time but so much as changed in such a short period. New Year’s Eve 2019 feels like a lifetime away. One day we will look back and speak of a BC and an AC, before and after COVID-19.
Lenin once said that “there are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” I think that these last hundred days are an example of this.
Remember Brexit? And the the killing of Iranian general Soleimani by a US drone strike? We thought these were momentous events but they all pale in comparison with the arrival of this microscopic invader.
I think that only time will tell us the final impact this crisis will have on our world, but some changes are already happening. I will list a few:
We are realising that life and health are more important than money and financial growth.
Nurses, care workers, teachers, cleaners, delivery drivers, postmen and women, doctors, service workers, supermarket shelf stackers and cashiers are more important than bankers, celebrities, sports personalities and other influencers. We are realising which roles are essentials for the functioning of a healthy society.
There is such a thing as society, comprised of individuals, their families and communities.
Relationships and human connection are essential to our wellbeing. Without them we feel lonely and isolated. We long for touch and smell and closeness and intimacy. And all the gadgets and other stuff we normally give attention to cannot satisfy those basic human needs.
The Internet is a right, not a privilege, and should be available to everyone, without limits.
We can be given responsibility to work from home. We don’t need to travel to work as often as we do, polluting the planet in the process.
We have more of an impact on the environment than some would deny. There is no escaping the fact that our skies are cleaner, our seas and rivers more transparent and that nature is making a comeback as a result of us stopping our way of life, albeit temporarily.
We have learned that we are vulnerable. And when we are confronted with the possibility of death, we learn to appreciate what we have rather than what we don’t have. We reach out for one another and we become less selfish and self-centred. We become empathetic and community-minded.
These are just a few of the things that we are learning and changing in just one hundred days. As horrific as this illness is, it has given us an opportunity to rethink the way we live our lives.
I am making a promise that I will not go back to live the way that I lived before. My life AC will be a new life. I hope others decide to join me on this.
Good night all
OneLove OneHeart
Tonight’s choice couldn’t be anything else. Here is the wonderful Nick Drake with Pink Moon
World-wide confirmed cases: 1,504,971
World-wide deaths: 87,984
World-wide recovered: 318,068
UK confirmed cases: 61,474
UK deaths: 7,111
UK recovered: 345
Source: https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6