Pros and Cons of Lockdown
One of many arty pictures taken while stomping 10,000 steps a day in lockdown.
Global pandemic. Lockdown. Global protests. Revolution. Remember when we thought 2016 was tumultuous because a handful of celebs kicked the bucket?
This year, hundreds of thousands of people died. In the words of my yoga teacher during a zoom class she thought she’d fumbled (she hadn’t) - ‘This is an absolute shit show.’
Then, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against police violence towards black people. While Boris may be telling us it’s safe to go out, I’m still hesitant to leave the house for a loaf of bread, but I stand in solidarity with those who march peacefully through the streets, demanding long overdue change.
How can I possibly weigh up my own personal pros and cons of a pandemic which has killed hundreds of thousands of people? With exactly that caveat, that’s how. When I think outside my bubble, my heart races. If I think too big, I get scared about death, unemployment, debt, recession, inflation and house repossession.
So I think small. I look at my today in my little corner, where we’ve managed to keep four high risk people safe and well. We’ve kept spirits up with games, gardening and gratitude.
I think hopeful. A global pandemic came along to teach us to treat the planet and the animals better. Global protests came along to teach us to treat each other better.
This might just be the best year the human race ever had, if we can just bloody learn from the lessons it is waving in our collective face.
My personal pros and cons are meaningless and frivolous and there are more important things going on in the world. Enjoy.
Pro. My mum and sister came to stay with us for the duration of lockdown, which meant so much bonus quality time. We baked and gardened, sunbathed, read stories, played games, attempted various arts and crafts projects, walked and talked.
We watched Elon Musk’s rocket take off in Florida on the laptop… then fly overhead 20 minutes later!
Con. I missed other family members all the more. My brother visited and this was how close we got:
I want hugs! I don’t want to look like the front cover of a shit album.
Pro. My to-do list usually gnaws at my conscience while I’m busy filling my free time doing Other Stuff. Now the list is filled with things like ‘water sunflowers’ and ‘bake bread.’ My speed has slowed to such a pace, we spend Saturday mornings sitting, chatting, drinking coffee and playing Rummikub. I keep re-checking my to-do list, only to be reminded it’s to-done. Conversation has time to meander! It doesn’t even matter if Dad tells a really long story, because I’m available to half-listen!
Con. I miss my friends. I miss hugs and laughter and those glorious endorphins which ooze from a night with kindred spirits. I miss the Other Stuff - restaurants and cinemas and stand up comedy and weekends away.
Pro. Without all the Other Stuff, I’ve walked at least 10,000 steps a day, for over 100 days.
Con. How can I ever end this winning streak? I am now obsessive and don’t let anything get in the way of meeting my target. Easy in lockdown but, what if future me makes some plans or has a sudden need to go to hospital? I’ll be pacing up and down the corridors while they try to sedate me. Note to husband: If this scenario comes true, please piggy-back me 10,000 steps while I’m sleeping.
My lockdown PB - 36.4k steps. I was so smug I sent this photo to my fittest friend.
Pro. This pandemic is bringing out the best in some people. I loved the weekly NHS clap, meeting one, brilliant, neighbour on the street every Thursday for two minutes of pan banging. At first, my sister Pip got upset by all the noise and thought we were going to hurt the doctors and nurses for whom we were clapping. For the final clap, we managed to get her out on the street and she banged her pan and cheered and loved it and no doctors or nurses were harmed.
Thank you NHS! The purchasing of these t-shirts not only made us look really cool but also contributed to NHS Charities Together.
Con. When crowds returned to British beaches, some people got so excited about their escape from house-arrest, they defecated on the beach and spat at volunteer car park wardens. Just when you hope a global pandemic might have changed us all for the better, someone shits on a beach and spits in your face. Then there are the hundreds of people who queued for an hour to get a McDonalds when a few outlets opened. Because even a disease which started because of the way we mistreat animals won’t put some people off their burgers.
Pro. I’ve lived by the Liverpool FC philosophy of ‘you’ll never walk alone,’ for too long. If Gaz was unavailable, I wouldn’t walk up the beautiful hill near our house, because of all the rape and murder. During lockdown, I learned to walk alone. I am yet to be raped or murdered, so that’s good. It appears my fears were born of horror movies, not the statistical likelihood of being killed on a hill in Wiltshire. Walking with Gaz is still preferable because he’s fun, but walking alone is special. It makes me feel proud. It clears my head. I listen to podcasts. Sometimes I walk with the rising sun, which makes me quite emotional. Sunset’s great, but everyone’s up the hill at sunset. At sunrise it’s just me. But don’t take that as an invitation to murder me because I’m busy being brave.
She rises…
She sets…
Con. On one of my solo-walks, this dog bit me. It was pretty bloody traumatising actually.
Clue’s in the sign.
Pro. Without ParkRun, we now run around the village on a Saturday morning. It’s just us, so we don’t get any stats about being 4th best in our age group (although now we’re always best in our age group). But it’s a 6.66km route, so I now run further without having to drive into town first, making my run carbon neutral.
No crowds, no cheering, but my own personal pacesetter and photographer.
Con. When lockdown began, we were convinced food supply chains were going to break down.
Pro. We built a veg patch. We’ve got moisture checkers, compost turners and bird-nets. We’re growing carrots, beetroot, potatoes, kale, lettuce, tomatoes, sunflowers, cauliflowers, radishes and strawberries. We’re a lockdown cliche! We get excited about compost and rain. It’s the Good Life, but with a backdrop of global catastrophe.
Grass! Grass won’t sustain us in the apocalypse!
Bare beds.
Ta-da!
It’s a mixed bag, 2020. Will we all change for the better? Some statistics suggest we want to. Some facts suggest we have to. Remember the IPCC report? Remember how climate scientists warned us the planet needed dramatic change from each and every one of us, or we’re up the creek without a liveable climate? Gaz jokes it’s like the IPCC report said: ‘stop living the way you do, the planet can’t cope’ and we collectively said: ‘la la la, not listening’ and Covid-19 said: ‘hold my beer.’
We’re not flying. Some people are cutting down their consumption of animal products, if not because they’ve made the connection between this pandemic and the next one, which could come from our own chicken or cow farms, then out of solidarity with meat packing facility workers. We’re driving less, wasting less food, buying less fast fashion. Look at us glow!
May the global pandemic be short lived, may a vaccine save millions of lives, may the deaths stop. But may the good things last.
Sending lockdown love to you all.