I opened my eyes this morning, lay in my bed and slowly woke… out of the curtains that I like go keep partially open when the nights start to get warmer I could see something that took me by surprise. The distinctive white trail of an aeroplane… a normal occurrence around 5-6 weeks ago, but now, an oddly eerie unicorn of a transport method. The world is in the grips of the Corona virus, the virus that humanity has no natural immunity too, the virus that is contagious for a fortnight before any symptoms are shown – that is if you get symptoms. This virus has turned the wonderful world that we all know into a terrible film, yet there is no relief after two and a bit hours and a bag of popcorn as we are playing this out in real time – we are not sat in front of a movie looking for a cathartic release.
In the UK we are mid way through the third week of lockdown- a trip to the supermarket calls for face masks that conceal your identity, alcohol rub and a natural suspicion of every person that you meet. We keep at least two meters apart as we select our daily bread and pay the cashier at arms length witn our contactless bank cards as they sit behind a huge plexiglass screen. There is an odd silence about, children dont run in the playgrounds as schools are shut, a summer holiday that arrived in March could well go on until September… the children don’t understand and the parents are grappling for answers. Cars don’t move down the motorway, there hasnt been a traffic jam in weeks… these days we leave our houses for medicine, food, exercise (once a day whilst still permitted) or to help a vulnerable person…
Life as we know it is not that whimsical aeroplane ploughing a white line through the sky making us all wonder, “where are they off to?” engaging the jealousy in so many of us “what I wouldn’t give to be on that plane right now” life is currently very fragile, a little bit frightening and far from familiar.
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