Update – November 2020
We are still here and still waiting for that next gig. The situation has ebbed and flowed for months as we look at numbers of cases and hope they decrease. Our vocabulary has extended to R Numbers, self isolation, contact tracing, testing and pods or bubbles. In Ireland we have levels, the UK have tiers but no matter what we still need to look after each other. Take care and stay sane but never forget we have a world to re-imagine
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So – who else can’t concentrate? There’s a whole new dictionary ready to be written. Social distancing, self isolation, cocooning. Measuring tapes are given new reason for existence as we keep 2 metres away from our friends and loved ones we don’t live with. We can’t see special friends and we are trying to avoid dangerous air particles.
It is starting to get more real as we hear of contact tracing coming close to home. We read of a disease that celebrities can’t isolate from and as the two tier health system shows up the inequality and inadequacy many have been talking about for years we have decrees that people will receive the care they require regardless of income.
I’ve been trying to study for exams in April and just haven’t the strength to open that book. The exam has moved online and that makes it less appealing. It’s ok for me, my exam won’t have any real say on the direction my life will take in May. However there are thousands of kids preparing for Junior Cert and Leaving Cert exams they have been working towards since entering school as Junior infants. These are the exams that dictate your career they have been told. Of course that is not the case but they are the indications of what they have achieved academically during their 12-14 years in the education system. The June date is looming and people hope, wait and speculate on what’s going to happen. How unfair is that to anyone’s psyche? One thing is for sure, any kids that has continued to study will emerge from this a stronger more resolute person.
While some of us have been worrying about whether gigs will happen (Rebellion for the Punks, Electric Picnic for the masses – and all those diy events in between) people have been losing their jobs, their livelihood. Others have been going to work in fear of their lives and many are isolating for fear a droplet of this contagion gets to them
What a bizarre time. Of course we can only deal with facts and the state of our world today. We can hope for a more equitable future as liberty, equality and fraternity will rise again. For now we virtually hold hands with our friends and family. We help each other through these times and know that there will be an end. When that comes we will rise, we can break free and we can re-imagine the world.
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