Silver Linings

It’s hard to see positives in a pandemic, but there are some. A bucketload of negatives, naturally, but here are my Top 5 to bring some sunshine!

• Science – All these years of ‘science doesn’t have all the answers’ by non-vaxers and climate changed deniers, we’re all betting on only one damn horse now, ammarite? It’s amazing that no God has showed up yet with the miracle cure, all in all a very quiet time for religion. The Lord moves in mysterious ways.
• ​Cleaner environment and returning wildlife – being a city dweller, without cars around I can often walk in the middle of the street like I own the place! Right up until I see someone coming the same direction, and have to move in case they breathe within fifty metres of me. Check out this amazing graphic in the New York Times concerning flight numbers, this must be good for the environment, right? I mean, if you believe in that kind of rubbish. Although stories of dolphins appearing in Venetian waters are apocryphal, the canals are cleaner. Foxes are spotted in inner-city Melbourne, and Wales has goats (don’t ask) running amok. Hearing that their new four-legged overloads were taking over the police station and political office, some locals feared it had goat out of hand, but then they for-goat all about it and are now looking forward to the nanny state

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• Medical & Teaching Profession – oh shit, we really need these people! Hand-clapping is very nice, but they should be paid more, it’s very simple, even if we have to realise that through thousands of people dying. You can blame capitalism, but it’s government that dictate funding, and no amount of self-isolation missile-rubbing will change the fundamental need that health and education should be first
• Working from home – Technology has enabled us to achieve marvels, working from any location in any time-zone across the entire planet. I mean, if we could go anywhere else, that is. The pandemic has given us a chance to revaluate what is possible, and realise working from your bed isn’t something just for prostitutes
• Perspective – In the ‘first world’, we are desperately lucky: the internet enables us to stay connected or distracted (Netflix, Skype, Zoom); supermarkets and pharmacies are so often fully stocked we go mental without liquid soap. We now spend less time commuting, more time with our families watching our children grow-up, which is a blessing. With this of course comes the inevitable conclusion that your child really is that thick, and it it’s all your fault after all. That’s nice, isn’t it?