It seems time to scale down the Covid-19 Diaries series. Bill Taylor will continue to post daily thoughts from Canada at Facebook, which is where this all began. I may, every few days, reproduce them here as I have been, until now without fail. I will discourage other contributors from devoting to their own lockdown notebooks though any disinclined to heed my advice will see their work posted as and when I get the chance.
My thanks to Bill and all others who have made this an uplifting and at times even useful exercise. See all their efforts at this link. All good things come to an end and it is time to acknowledge that series, or at least the relentless daily posting, has run its course ...
Magisterial notes from the trenches:
We never used to hold these truths to be self-evident but I think we’re beginning to…
All men, all people that is, ARE created equal.
We may not, alas, all live equal lives – some human animals, to misquote Orwell, will always be “more equal than others”. A deplorable fact of our existence.
But bring it down to the bare bones and we’re all in the same leaky boat. Human frailty becomes the great equaliser.
When we’re not afraid, we look at our ideological enemies in the government capitals of the globe and talk airily of anarchy, of revolt, of overthrowing the system. Everything from simple civil disobedience to outright mobocracy.
The oligarchs want the peasantry suppressed and the peasants want the oligarchs hanging by their feet from light poles. At least until some cash falls from their pockets.
When we are afraid, especially when we’re being picked off by an enemy sniping from cover, we huddle together. Metaphorically. In effect, with pretty much the whole damned planet on lockdown, what we’re doing right now is huddling apart. But huddling, nonetheless.
We’re in this together and we know it. Hard to hate someone who’s just as scared as you are.
There I go, being naïve again. But I no longer mind mind seeing myself as a wide-eyed innocent abroad in a toxic world.
I can let myself say inane things and ask obtuse question without self-recrimination (who cares what other people think?). Though in weeks or months to come, when we’re back to our old, semi-informed selves and baying for blood, political or otherwise, I may cringe at the memory.
Still, memories are made of this. So, unfortunately, are memes…
I’ve gone right off memes.
Memes are the enemy of independent thought. And we really do need to be thinking for ourselves these days.
We’re being taught lessons every day about – among other things – decency and dignity. Being taught is one thing, learning is another. Learning requires thought, not just rote “share it” memorisation. We can only hope our elected representatives, local, provincial and federal, are thinking, too, beyond the end of the crisis.
Because after this health crisis will come a human crisis. And how we and our politicians deal with that, in a new spirit of cooperation or the old knee-jerk party-line antagonism, will define our own long-term humanity.
Enough of this. Give me a hand climbing down off the soapbox, will you? A metaphoric hand. Keep your distance.
In a less pompous world, we’re well into the fourth week of extreme restrictions and, by and large, I think we’re holding together pretty well. It doesn’t feel as much as if we’re making it up as we go along.
I wonder how it’ll feel when we’re well into the eighth week.
My parents used to say that during World War II they got used to the bombers coming over at night.
But at least they could hear them coming.
Recent Comments