| General Fiction posted April 20, 2020 |
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How has Covid 19 affected you?
New World Order
by zanya
The name of this deadly virus is not unlike a computer password, COVID 19. Click on it and we find ourselves exploring a new and strange world. It's like a portal to an alternative Universe.
We are devouring information about it as it comes to hand.
Knowledge, limited as it is, at present, is our only guiding light. We are moving around in a twilight zone. We are feeling our way around all these new and scary concepts like social distancing and remembering to wash our hands constantly while wearing our face mask.
As citizens of the twenty-first century, we have our footprint on the moon. We sent a funky little machine up to Mars and managed to get it to send back selfies. Exploration never achieved by previous generations. Now we are obliged to confine ourselves, for the most part, to the limits of our house gardens.
I throw the kitchen door wide open early in the morning to hear the dawn chorus. At least it's a distraction from the frightening events all around us. Then I do a few laps of the back garden. How odd it all is. I have to try not to check my tablet constantly for updates on the pandemic.
Our schools and colleges have fallen silent and are shuttered up for the foreseeable future. We are increasingly thrown back on our own mental resources.
The class of 2020 are not likely to forget what happened in their final school year. They will be resilient citizens, having come through a pandemic and will have stories to tell their children as living witnesses to the time when the world, metaphorically speaking, seemed to swivel on its axis.
The doors of churches of every creed have closed. Celebration of religious ritual has now joined the heavy traffic on the virtual highway. Would Jesus use these resources to reach his followers if He walked on earth now?
Our neighbourhood has, to all intents and purposes, fallen silent, except for the barking of dogs or occasionally, in the afternoon the sound of children's laughter.
The traffic lights in our village still flash red to green. Will traffic lights soon be a symbol of an ancient civilization?
Last week, I rummaged through the garden shed and found a packet of, still in date, spinach seeds. A cracked ceramic pot lay in the grass beside the shed door. Pulling it from its grassy bed, I planted the seeds. Today, a week later, spinach shoots have begun to grow. I had forgotten how simple it is to plant seeds. Maybe it's time to start remembering some basic life skills.
All these new things are simply diversionary tactics to keep busy and stop thinking about the pandemic.
We have been time poor for a long time now, forever repeating the mantra, 'Sorry, I can't go, I'm so busy.' Now we have a surfeit of time that we are not quite sure how to spend.
Media is coming to our rescue with homeschooling advice, gardening and cooking and exercise tips. For the most part, I feel overwhelmed and unable to join in.
Reading is a useful activity though, helping to take the mind off the horror of it all. I have found Jane Austen's 'Emma' a comforting read. Having dug it out to reread when the film came out earlier this year, I never managed to do so. Now it is like a comfort blanket. Every day I make a point of reading at least one chapter, immersing myself in the shenanigans of Emma and her pals in the early nineteenth century, in the fictitious town of Highbury. It's the slow pace of events that soothes the mind for at least twenty minutes or so. Any longer indulgence and COVID19 would begin to ripple again at the edge of my thoughts.
It's difficult to feel at ease anywhere. People everywhere are on edge, even in the social distancing supermarket queue. At least the toilet roll wars have eased for now. Pasta has begun to reappear on the shelves.
Shopping malls have become like spectres from another age. We never thought we'd be able to wean ourselves off the shopping habit.
COVID19 has created a topsy-turvy world - a new war is now being fought and our dedicated frontline workers are at the battlefront every day.
Who knows where these events will take us or what the world will eventually look like when it is but a distant memory. It is said that Pandemics press the fast forward button on history.
Ultimately, are we really in charge of our own destiny?
================================
How Has Covid-19 Affected You? contest entry
The name of this deadly virus is not unlike a computer password, COVID 19. Click on it and we find ourselves exploring a new and strange world. It's like a portal to an alternative Universe.
We are devouring information about it as it comes to hand.
Knowledge, limited as it is, at present, is our only guiding light. We are moving around in a twilight zone. We are feeling our way around all these new and scary concepts like social distancing and remembering to wash our hands constantly while wearing our face mask.
As citizens of the twenty-first century, we have our footprint on the moon. We sent a funky little machine up to Mars and managed to get it to send back selfies. Exploration never achieved by previous generations. Now we are obliged to confine ourselves, for the most part, to the limits of our house gardens.
I throw the kitchen door wide open early in the morning to hear the dawn chorus. At least it's a distraction from the frightening events all around us. Then I do a few laps of the back garden. How odd it all is. I have to try not to check my tablet constantly for updates on the pandemic.
Our schools and colleges have fallen silent and are shuttered up for the foreseeable future. We are increasingly thrown back on our own mental resources.
The class of 2020 are not likely to forget what happened in their final school year. They will be resilient citizens, having come through a pandemic and will have stories to tell their children as living witnesses to the time when the world, metaphorically speaking, seemed to swivel on its axis.
The doors of churches of every creed have closed. Celebration of religious ritual has now joined the heavy traffic on the virtual highway. Would Jesus use these resources to reach his followers if He walked on earth now?
Our neighbourhood has, to all intents and purposes, fallen silent, except for the barking of dogs or occasionally, in the afternoon the sound of children's laughter.
The traffic lights in our village still flash red to green. Will traffic lights soon be a symbol of an ancient civilization?
Last week, I rummaged through the garden shed and found a packet of, still in date, spinach seeds. A cracked ceramic pot lay in the grass beside the shed door. Pulling it from its grassy bed, I planted the seeds. Today, a week later, spinach shoots have begun to grow. I had forgotten how simple it is to plant seeds. Maybe it's time to start remembering some basic life skills.
All these new things are simply diversionary tactics to keep busy and stop thinking about the pandemic.
We have been time poor for a long time now, forever repeating the mantra, 'Sorry, I can't go, I'm so busy.' Now we have a surfeit of time that we are not quite sure how to spend.
Media is coming to our rescue with homeschooling advice, gardening and cooking and exercise tips. For the most part, I feel overwhelmed and unable to join in.
Reading is a useful activity though, helping to take the mind off the horror of it all. I have found Jane Austen's 'Emma' a comforting read. Having dug it out to reread when the film came out earlier this year, I never managed to do so. Now it is like a comfort blanket. Every day I make a point of reading at least one chapter, immersing myself in the shenanigans of Emma and her pals in the early nineteenth century, in the fictitious town of Highbury. It's the slow pace of events that soothes the mind for at least twenty minutes or so. Any longer indulgence and COVID19 would begin to ripple again at the edge of my thoughts.
It's difficult to feel at ease anywhere. People everywhere are on edge, even in the social distancing supermarket queue. At least the toilet roll wars have eased for now. Pasta has begun to reappear on the shelves.
Shopping malls have become like spectres from another age. We never thought we'd be able to wean ourselves off the shopping habit.
COVID19 has created a topsy-turvy world - a new war is now being fought and our dedicated frontline workers are at the battlefront every day.
Who knows where these events will take us or what the world will eventually look like when it is but a distant memory. It is said that Pandemics press the fast forward button on history.
Ultimately, are we really in charge of our own destiny?
================================
We are devouring information about it as it comes to hand.
Knowledge, limited as it is, at present, is our only guiding light. We are moving around in a twilight zone. We are feeling our way around all these new and scary concepts like social distancing and remembering to wash our hands constantly while wearing our face mask.
As citizens of the twenty-first century, we have our footprint on the moon. We sent a funky little machine up to Mars and managed to get it to send back selfies. Exploration never achieved by previous generations. Now we are obliged to confine ourselves, for the most part, to the limits of our house gardens.
I throw the kitchen door wide open early in the morning to hear the dawn chorus. At least it's a distraction from the frightening events all around us. Then I do a few laps of the back garden. How odd it all is. I have to try not to check my tablet constantly for updates on the pandemic.
Our schools and colleges have fallen silent and are shuttered up for the foreseeable future. We are increasingly thrown back on our own mental resources.
The class of 2020 are not likely to forget what happened in their final school year. They will be resilient citizens, having come through a pandemic and will have stories to tell their children as living witnesses to the time when the world, metaphorically speaking, seemed to swivel on its axis.
The doors of churches of every creed have closed. Celebration of religious ritual has now joined the heavy traffic on the virtual highway. Would Jesus use these resources to reach his followers if He walked on earth now?
Our neighbourhood has, to all intents and purposes, fallen silent, except for the barking of dogs or occasionally, in the afternoon the sound of children's laughter.
The traffic lights in our village still flash red to green. Will traffic lights soon be a symbol of an ancient civilization?
Last week, I rummaged through the garden shed and found a packet of, still in date, spinach seeds. A cracked ceramic pot lay in the grass beside the shed door. Pulling it from its grassy bed, I planted the seeds. Today, a week later, spinach shoots have begun to grow. I had forgotten how simple it is to plant seeds. Maybe it's time to start remembering some basic life skills.
All these new things are simply diversionary tactics to keep busy and stop thinking about the pandemic.
We have been time poor for a long time now, forever repeating the mantra, 'Sorry, I can't go, I'm so busy.' Now we have a surfeit of time that we are not quite sure how to spend.
Media is coming to our rescue with homeschooling advice, gardening and cooking and exercise tips. For the most part, I feel overwhelmed and unable to join in.
Reading is a useful activity though, helping to take the mind off the horror of it all. I have found Jane Austen's 'Emma' a comforting read. Having dug it out to reread when the film came out earlier this year, I never managed to do so. Now it is like a comfort blanket. Every day I make a point of reading at least one chapter, immersing myself in the shenanigans of Emma and her pals in the early nineteenth century, in the fictitious town of Highbury. It's the slow pace of events that soothes the mind for at least twenty minutes or so. Any longer indulgence and COVID19 would begin to ripple again at the edge of my thoughts.
It's difficult to feel at ease anywhere. People everywhere are on edge, even in the social distancing supermarket queue. At least the toilet roll wars have eased for now. Pasta has begun to reappear on the shelves.
Shopping malls have become like spectres from another age. We never thought we'd be able to wean ourselves off the shopping habit.
COVID19 has created a topsy-turvy world - a new war is now being fought and our dedicated frontline workers are at the battlefront every day.
Who knows where these events will take us or what the world will eventually look like when it is but a distant memory. It is said that Pandemics press the fast forward button on history.
Ultimately, are we really in charge of our own destiny?
================================
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