Freedom?
- Jul 1, 2021
- 2 min read
Wouldn't it be nice?
I remember a set at a barbershop convention several years ago, in which the current champion chorus were singing a song about being Canadian (they were from Toronto). At one point the script required some Americans to come on stage, chanting about being free. The person speaking the links between parts of the set, quietly went up to them and said "we're Canadians, and we're free, too".
(The YouTube link is here)
I was told very early on in the Covid saga that I was in one of the medically vulnerable groups, so freedom suddenly changed. To be free of the virus meant staying home - keeping away from everyone - speaking to my neighbours across a garden - talking to delivery men and women out of a window instead of at my front door. Some freedom! The freedom to go out of my house and garden came with strings - avoid everyone else - stay 2 metres away - walk or exercise alone - and so on. Simple things like actually handling what you buy before choosing - even going into shops that didn't sell essential supplies - just vanished. The freedom to buy the wrong things online didn't really seem like freedom, especially if sending them back was so hard. How can you wear a mask if you can't even buy one that fits? How long should you quarantine what comes into your house? I did learn that I didn't need to handle food as much as I used to....
To make it worse and much more personal, very early on in the crisis I heard that a relation by marriage had been taken very seriously ill with Covid. The next day I heard he had been moved to the end of life ward; a chilling name I'd never heard of. He passed away soon after; I knew he was about my age.
Eventually, vaccines appeared and our health service proved that doing national vaccination programmes was something they knew how to do. However, the old confidence that came from being vaccinated has not shown itself yet.
It's hard to go and mix with people after so long a period of being told not to. It's hard to go into a room unless everyone else is robed and masked (even the dentist's office has a certain chill to it beyond the treatment). What kind of freedom is this? How unreal is it when you see media coverage of unmasked people together?
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