We knew where we were in lockdown. Locked down. Cleaning , disinfecting. Putting up the shutters and gritting our teeth. Together, united in adversity, we clapped and saved the NHS. Our leaders spelled out the statistics, the dangers, the risks, the rules. There was a Brit stiff upper lip stoic confidence in our demeanours. We knew what we had to do. We stood behind our leaders, we helped our neighbours and marvelled at the birdsong.
But what now? Hoards invading beaches leaving tons of ocean plastic detritus, no more daily briefings, changes of tack, indoor events on then off. 1 metre / 2 metre? Bubbles in bubbles. All the uncertainty has left me feeling far more anxious than before and there is evidence that many others feel the same.
Living in border country in England but close to Wales is even more bizarre. I had occasion to pop over the border a few miles and called into Lidl on the way back for a few messages (how I love that Scottish word for a few supermarket purchases). I was shocked. Not a mask in sight. I hadn’t heard but the Welsh First Minister had thrown out the requirement to wear masks indoors in Wales. No wonder the roads west were so jammed this weekend with the masses longing for mask-free aisles making desperate bids to escape the nightmare filmset that our English shopping experience has become.
So should I just ignore the Welsh First Minister and wear a mask anyway or ignore Boris, refuse to wear one and speak in a welsh accent if I am challenged?
The anxiety is palpable everywhere. So much work potential gone. Redundancies all over the place. People radically adapting their life choices. I have been asked to make a short video show for Barking Folk Festival’s 2020 online event. I have performed there a couple of times and have written about the event previously. I met a guy who is a video genius. Check out his work here https://www.victorpennington.com/
He is going to help me put the film together. He was doing a major contract filming at an International School in Berlin when the pandemic happened. Suddenly it all went and he is now working in his local pub trying to pick up the pieces. A bit like me, but without the pub.
My video family show project is still ticking on. I didn’t realise there was such a steep learning curve with managing the software and the hardware and deciding on what I really wanted to do and whether there would be an audience out there anyway that would justify the expense and how to market it and so on and so on. It hasn’t been easy although there are a lot of excellent free and not so free tutorials on how to do it. I’m Youtubed out currently and am going to step back from it for a bit and assess where we all are. If anyone knows maybe they will share.
I do know I am enjoying volunteering for a local non-profit organisation in a deprived housing estate on the edge of Chester. Live Laugh Lache (the estate is called The Lache) is a group of local people who decided to act on their beliefs and have set up a shop in the centre of the estate. They collect out of date but still usable food from local supermarkets, bring it to their shop and you can fill a carrier bag with whatever there is for £2. I am working as a volunteer there on Friday mornings and, once the shop is set up for the day, I have been doing some magic for the families in the delightful little garden they have established at the back of the shop. Magic Fridays I call them. I have a few more children popping in every week. We wear masks and do it at a distance of course. The group have all sorts of other positive plans for community development and the place is full of hope and positive intention. We all could do with a dose of whatever they are on.
Currently it’s the only thing I am doing that I don’t feel anxious about. It’s good to have at least one of those things in our lives and it’s amazing what even one can do to reduce the load of the rest. I strongly recommend volunteering as a path through the dense undergrowth of anxiety that seems to be growing up around us.
All the best from a road near you,
Mr Alexander
No comments:
Post a Comment