The World Has Never Felt Smaller But…

We have been told to stay in our houses for the greater good. To fight against COVID19 and to make it possible for our already stretched and wonderful NHS to be able to cope with the casualties, we must do this. To flatten the curve, spread the infected out and make it so that there are enough resources to look after those who need it, when they need it. So that there are enough beds. Enough medical personnel. Enough rooms in the mortuary

And we don’t mind. I don’t mind. I’m very happy to do whatever it takes to not need those things ourselves and to try and assist in other people not needing them either. I have even managed to find the odd compassionate thought for our Prime Minister who I did not, would not have in fact, vote for. It’s a strange time indeed and in one way I feel like our world has never been smaller. But…

The enormity of our 2020 world is exactly why this pandemic has travelled the entire globe. We have everything at the touch of a button, end of a plane ride, over the telephone, internet, from our own homes to the end of the earth. We have learned not to wait for things because we don’t have to, we have discovered we can have anything and everything whether we have the means or not. Borrow, lend, earn, sell, buy… Commodity at our fingertips for our every whim!

Television is streamed on demand with thousands of channels at our disposal.

We do not understand how to wait and even now during this most strange and unusual time, for most modern things we still do not have to. We are used to knowing how to to have and to own. And that is what we want. Because we are entitled to it ALL.

Until now of course. Until now…

Now, as the world shuts down and the shops close their doors at night, the earth spins a little slower and with it we have no choice but to embrace our own lives taking the pace down a notch too. No choices, just how it is. But is it bad? Is it all so very bad?

Most of our ways of life as we know them are gone, not forever but just for the now and yet we find this all so very hard at times. Why is it so hard to simply stay home and do nothing? We are up in arms because we can’t just ‘drive thru’ life for a moment and pick up our heart’s desire on the way. We are spinning slowly with a new but old axis and breathing perhaps a little cleaner as we do, slowly we will realise and appreciate it, won’t we? I think I am beginning to.

I love progression, I embrace it and when I argue the point of blood transfusions or vaccinations with those who don’t believe in or want them I say we HAVE the technology, the science, we are lucky that progression has brought us this and while I still stand firm in that camp for issues of that ilk I see also that progression has brought us greed and consumption. We don’t think of others, we just grab, buy, barge, demand all in our self entitlement of it.

Did it start with ‘Loads A Money’ in the 80s? Did it grow from that seed as it flourished with at first a simple green shoot, straight out of a pot planted in a simpler time which knew only 4 TV channels and no Sunday trading, before that even less? And as the tree grew, its branches ever expanding with lush leaves, did we just expect more and more and more from it while we decided nurturing might just be unnecessary? Water the damn plant and it will stay alive? No! Why bother? We thought…

Has it made us happier in the long run?

I wonder… I really do!

As I feel our lives and our world seeming smaller while we are on lockdown and I behave badly by being annoyed by it for moments at a time because I am human, and I can’t help it, I try to jog myself back to reality and remind myself that actually we live within a pretty huge old globe as it goes, on lockdown or otherwise.

My children have Zoom dates with their friends and music teachers and cubs, they dance to Gymboree from the living room rather than in person, we do daily work outs as a family live on YouTube with Joe Wicks, we watch movies whenever we like and talk to friends and family who live close and who also live far away yet it all feels so easy like they are in the next room. On our phones we are in constant contact with the rest of the population of not just the country we live in but the whole entire world. We Tweet, Facebook and Instagram our every move and watch those of others who we don’t even know. Our shopping can come to our door, we can deliver to our relatives if they need by arranging where to leave the goods over video call.

We are SO lucky. We are SO lucky!

Yes the world seems smaller right now but perhaps the reality is that it has never been bigger and we are so privileged to be able to experience both feeling the first and knowing the last and perhaps… Maybe, that will be the silver lining! I want to see the sunshine after the rain, I want to see blue birds flying over the mountains again, oh where the silver lining shining at the rainbows end…

The world has never felt smaller but… I’m not sure it’s such a bad thing to be reminded of all we have and all we will have once again and perhaps it will remind us not to take it all for granted for actually, our world is very big and we should all be incredibly grateful don’t you think?!