Archive for April, 2020

Why falling into the river is sometimes a good thing…

April 12, 2020

Yesterday (lockdown day 12, Saturday), I got up, and did my yoga stretches as usual. Except it wasn’t as usual: I did something that hurt my back, and between that and being a bit miserable and self-pitying with the lockdown, I was not in a good mood. So when I read Facebook about the five stages of a pandemic, and looked at people’s postings about how they were coping, without a trace of miserableness, my mood was not exactly positive.

It was nonetheless a lovely morning, and out we went with the dog, Lussa. We were just arriving at the park, when to maintain social distancing, I decided to go down to the river Allan, which is quite low just now, so that the rocks near the bank are sticking out. To help convince Lussa to come to me I went on to a rock a little further out. On came Lussa, which was good, because she’s been a little afraid of water. Then it was time to come back onto terra firma but the rocks were very slippy, and down I sat into the water.

Now, you might think this would make my mood even worse, but it had exactly the opposite effect. I realised that there’s enjoyment to be had in any sensation, the sensation of being very much alive (and in this case, very wet too). So on my wife went with the dog, and I went home to change, much cheered up by falling into the river.

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A life without risk?

April 4, 2020

No life is without risk. Everything has risk, and we accept the risk every day when we get out of bed.

We don’t take unnecessary risks, at least as we get older.

But are we now striving for minimising the risk too far? We all die: many of us have lived much longer than we could have expected to in past centuries: look at any old graveyard, look at the births and deaths of the artists and composers.

Covid 19 isn’t the plague. The mortality is about 1% with good hospital treatment, perhaps 3 or 4% without it. The social distancing we are doing won’t of itself change the numbers getting the disease in the longer term, not unless we create new treatments or vaccines, neither of which seems a prospect in the short term. Certainly social distancing slows down the progress of the disease through the population, and this has allowed health services to expand their capabilities.

But the cost is large. Churches are closed, as are all performances and gatherings. All except food shops are closed here. Outings are strictly limited to household groups.

It feels as though we are simply waiting for the grim reaper to get round to us.

Would it be better to confront death more directly, and simply accept that something between 1 and 4% of the population will die of this disease? Just let life (and death) continue? Take the risk, and live, rather than try to temporarily avoid the risk and exist in this miserable demi-monde!

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