Covid - time to forget a modern plague?
How to reclaim your life after experiencing a 21st century pestilence
Greetings Gold and Silver Level Templars! Already the memory of being in full Covid lockdown during the first part of 2020 is becoming a fading memory. For about two and a half months, I didn’t leave the house and when I did, it was with a face visor. Now - that all seems increasingly distant and a bit weird.
One thing human beings are very good at is forgetting. It’s a coping mechanism for blocking out the pain in our lives. The loss of a parent. Death of a friend. And of course the Covid Pandemic of 2020 to 2022. Already, I’m putting behind me the strict lockdown conditions I imposed on myself - but were also mandated by the state - during 2020. For the first part of that year, I barely left the house.
We had a pleasant and very long summer from April to September in 2020 and I’m blessed with a garden. So for me, the experience of confinement wasn’t hell on earth. I missed the gym. And the relative lack of mobility meant that when I did go for long walks later in the year, my ankles were in agony. Other than that, I found working from home very productive and the experience allowed me to reappraise many aspects of my life.
But for many, being shut up indoors was an extremely unpleasant experience. Not all families and relationships are harmonious to put it mildly. It’s hardly surprising that we’ve seen a steep rise in mental illness and anxiety over the last two years. And combined with emerging into a world racked by war and economic crisis - all this has created an atmosphere of deep unease.
As lockdown conditions and mask mandates were relaxed, some commentators compared this modern pestilence with the 14th century Black Death that tore through Europe decimating cities, towns and villages. What resulted was a population better able to negotiate improved pay for their work as there were less people around to gather the harvest or carry out everyday basic tasks.
But this plague has left the rich even richer than they were before Covid and the poor ravaged by inflation and rising food and energy costs. The rich were on the defensive in medieval Europe after the Black Death. The rich are launching themselves into space after Covid.
After at least eighteen months of Covid dominating news bulletins, the war in Ukraine and the cost of living crisis has taken over. In the United States, the bitter battle over abortion and Roe v Wade has shoved Covid off the news agenda.
Even those of us who were pro-vaccine, pro-mask and pro-lockdown don’t want to hear about Covid anymore. A doctor friend of mine the other day cautioned that new variants on the horizon. I found myself just wanting to block my ears.
And so I suspect it is with all plagues in history - until the next one. We learn a few lessons. We fail to learn enough. And another virus pops up in the future to create renewed havoc.
This was me venturing out in June 2020 after three months in strict lockdown!