Following the Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday, I have a sense of people across England taking a big intake of breath, readying themselves for another period underwater. Germany, France, Belgium, Greece and Wales are already down there and on Thursday England will be joining them. I live in Scotland but it will surely only be a matter of time before we jump in too. The sea is getting full but let’s face it, the ocean is vast and there will be room for us all.
What with waves and tears (I mean “tiers”…) water seems like a good analogy for these times. In fact, if we are to believe what they tell us, this second wave threatens to be more like a tsunami, and we know nothing good comes from those.
So as we approach our time for submersion, how will we prepare ourselves? What did we learn from the last time? We know, I think (I hope..), that toilet paper will not run out. We know too that most health accessories are now plentiful — hand sanitiser, masks, thermometers. We are used to queuing for access to shops (though not in such inclement weather, perhaps). We are adept at Zooming and have shifted most of our lives online already. All of this is good news and worth remembering. We have acquired some new habits. We have done this before.
And yet, perhaps this is also part of the anxiety. We know what confinement fees like. We know how hard and frustrating it is to be separated from those we care about. We know the eeriness of empty streets and the worry when another ambulance goes screaming past. It is no longer a novelty. We are eight months in and there seems no end. So yes, we have done it before — when it was the first time. We haven’t done it a second time.
My hope is that as well as learning something about the availability of toilet roll, we also learned something about ourselves; about what it means to look after ourselves and each other with care and compassion in these times and what it takes to swim underwater for a while.
I am reflecting on what it is that I need in the weeks ahead, what helped in the spring and what did not. As I reach for my underwater swimming gear, I am digging out my oxygen tank to help me breathe and the goose grease to keep me warm. I am blowing up my armbands for the sticky patches when the going gets tougher and I feel like I am drowning, and inflating my little lilo for when I need to float a while and let the tide take me. I hope you are doing the same. Let me know if I can help.