Andy Richardson: The world is changing but we won’t be beaten by it
I’d planned to write about friendship. I’d planned to write about a pal from school who’d had my back when I made a disastrous and emotionally immature decision to marry for a second time. I’d been swept along by notions of being ‘in love’ – a biological reaction that never lasts – and was making a mistake that I can without exaggeration list as being the equal worst of my life.
My friend sat in a corner, watching as the day unfolded. He politely engaged with people who would within 10 months seek to destroy my reputation, my mental health and my family while making substantial financial gain; in short, taking away everything I’d ever worked for.
After the crash, he told me he’d seen it coming. He told me he’d known me too well – and them, it seemed – to forecast anything other than disaster. And he’d been right, sadly. And that’s what I’d planned to write about; undercutting my own seriousness and pomposity with a few jokes at my own expense.
But covid-19 is in town. And covid-19 is even more disruptive and dangerous than a person whom I dismissively call Wife 2. Covid-19 finishes the job. Covid-19 isn’t an amateur. Covid-19 takes no prisoners.
Life as we knew it has ended. The world has changed. The certainties that all of us worked so hard to achieve exist no longer. The things we took for granted, however humble those might have been, are gone. For the moment, at least.
But Covid-19 will pass. Chinese friends with whom I regularly converse faced similar levels of disruption at the start of the year, are now happily back in the swing of things. They have returned to their desks, they are back to business, they are carrying on as normal – because normality has returned.
And the ideas of enforced self-isolation, of social distancing, of not going out of the door for fear of infection have been replaced by conversations at the water cooler and chats about what people ate for supper.
The UK is beginning its covid-19 lockdown. Life is being put on hold. We are facing the biggest curbs on daily life in peacetime. The costs are colossal. Friends are losing businesses; many who have worked throughout their adult life to build companies of which they are rightly proud face losing all during the next three months. A number won’t survive. The social costs and financial costs are unimaginable.
Some will tough it out, others will spot opportunities. And all of us might remember that the seeds of hope grow in the garden of despair. As a nation, we’ll get through this. We’ll re-emerge. The skills and proclivities that lead us to happy families or successful careers will not be wiped away by an invisible killer. It’s time for everyone to stop panic-buying pasta and loo roll and to do the right thing; to look out for family and friends, to take care of neighbours, to accept social responsibility and reduce the pressures on our beloved NHS while also reducing the risk of transmission. We’re not in a position to reboot 2020, to go back to a time before the floods and before Covid-19. We can only play with the cards we’re dealt; and, frankly, 2020 has brought a stinking hand.
We might think, too, of those who have it much worse. A Tweet from a favourite broadcaster earlier this week recognised the affect that Covid-19 has; not least the mental health implications on over-70s who want to continue to do their own shopping; just don’t, simply – listen to the advice and stay home so that you and those at risk of infection stay alive. Sorry you’re bored, lonely, isolated and deprived of freedoms – better that than not being alive, eh.
It also posed this question: imagine you’re dealing with covid-19 and having to take all of the unpleasant measures that are involved. But then imagine you live in a country where there’s no public health service, where there’s either drought or famine, where your home is at daily risk of being bombed and where your journey to the shops is interrupted by the crack of a sniper’s rifle. In those circumstances, wouldn’t you try to move your family to a different part of the world where it might be a little safer? I know I would.
I make no apologies for the transgression. It’s a dangerous world. And Covid-19 can teach us to be kinder, to look after those we love, to forgive those we don’t; to do the right thing, as my friend from the start of this column did with me.
Borders are closing, but it’s time to throw open the borders of our hearts and engage in indiscriminate acts of kindness. And in the meantime, just think of the box sets, the tidying, the cds, the books, the letters and the conversations that we might enjoy. Stay safe.
