Week One - Listening Through The Noise

What a week eh?

I feel like I've watched enough disaster movies to know that the coming weeks and months are going to be less than ideal, but that we should all emerge blinking into the sunlight looking at a different world.

I'm encouraging Violet to keep a diary through all this because I think we'll all look back on these few months for years and years to come.  I thought I should try an do the same.

Like most people I know, I'm trying to be as sensible as I can be.  I don't have 2000 loo rolls, the only real stockpiles I have are half a dozen partially used bags of cous cous and quinoa (peak middle class eh?) and some Ryvita that ran out in 2016 but still tastes fine.

We've been outside every day but kept well away from anyone else.  I skipped visiting my mum for Mother's Day and I'm on day 8 of working from home.  Given I'm in a higher risk group, I'm only going to the shops when it's absolutely necessary as well.

Social media and the news, things I've always relied on for my own sanity and sense of connectedness are having the absolute opposite effect right now.  I've given up scrolling pretty much anything apart from Instagram and only posting elsewhere occasionally.

I get that people are angry.  Angry at those people ignoring advice.  Angry at those pushing three trollyfuls of shopping through crowded check outs.  Angry at people heading to the pub for 'one last night out'.  I'm angry too.

But I think people are scared.  Fight or flight has never felt stronger for me at times over the last few weeks.  That idea of 'doing what I've always done will mean I'll be OK' is completely out of the window now.  People resort to routine, comfort and self preservation when they're scared and I think that's what people are doing now.

Yes it's selfish, but I think it's understandable too.  People's anxieties manifest themselves differently, whether that's buying 10 bags of pasta, going to the pub or climbing to the top of the moral high ground.  It's all noise we're trying to process to do whatever the right thing is.

The advice means different things to each of us.  DON'T GO OUTSIDE.  SELF ISOLATE.  SOCIAL DISTANCING.  It's panic-inducing, that means people will panic.

I don't think any of us fully understand what this means right now and we're all doing what we can to get by.  I finally found a loaf of bread in the shops yesterday and it felt a little quieter.  Not normal, but not end-of-the-world either.

I don't know what the 'right' thing is.  But I know we need to be kind.  Buy what you need, stay a safe distance from people, don't berate those who perhaps genuinely don't understand, help a friend or neighbour, don't watch too much news or scroll Twitter all day.  Do what you can do and others will follow.

Stay safe, wash your hands