Someone of ‘mature of years’ kindly phoned the other day. They reflected that the millennial generation will speak of ‘pre’ and ‘post Covid19’. They will be able to recollect what life was like before the pandemic, what it was like during and what life is like after.At the moment we haven’t emerged out the other side. We can’t look back with any clarity because we are still stuck in the middle of it all.But one question keeps on bubbling up.
What am I learning? I know that I am learning lots about the new rules and I am learning a lot about myself. At 60 I had naively thought that I had it all sewn up, stitched up and sorted. But no! I have had to learn geeky things and I have had to learn to be very patient with myself as I slide up and down this relentless learning curve. This has been an infuriating process, full of mistakes and disappointments. In the long run it will not have done me any harm. Easy to say of course, not so easy to live out.
One day we will emerge from this. Just how and when is a moot point, but emerge we will and we can never be the same again. I imagine that our planet will be a different place, and our society can ever be the same again. Then the trick will be to perceive what is actually left. What are the new rules? What will we have learned about each other and ourselves? What will we keep, what will we try to recapture and claim back for ourselves? What do we throw away?