All change
Hi everyone
Last week I touched on the endemic racism within our society and am grateful for this contribution from a friend which sums it so well – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and_audio/headlines/52988605/muhammad-ali-why-is-everything-white
This issue has touched a raw nerve and it is going to run. I hope that we will not be side-tracked by the law and order issues arising from the demonstrations. For the younger generations it feels like a defining cause and they want change.
One change that is really pleasing to see is allowing those living alone to be able to mix with other households. Loneliness is so bad for your health and this will have a great positive effect. I remember years ago a vicar pointing out to me that the only time some people ever touched another human was sharing the peace in church at Sunday services. We are tactile people, and touching loved ones is such a core human need.
Indeed change is everywhere – there sometimes seems no firm ground to stand on. Joanna Macy in her book on the environment ‘Active Hope’ talks of three narratives – business as usual, the great unravelling, and the great turning. Whether it be race, transgender, the financial world, the environment, truth, or covid-19 and its yet to be felt economic fallout we are seeing unprecedented change – the great unravelling - and it is deeply unsettling. Every institution and person is affected. I expect we shall soon see the scientific community being seriously questioned – a perceived bastion of solidity behind which the government has been shielding itself. Not that the scientists have got it all right by any means with their modelling.
On a personal note, this week I phoned my GP practice for some routine care. Now the system is designed to prevent you seeing your GP with IT systems and their algorithms funnelling you elsewhere. So I was asked to go online and complete a questionnaire. The system did not work. I phoned back and spoke to the same receptionist who this time effortlessly gave me a phone appointment. The GP sanctioned my blood test. A further phone call, a screening questionnaire, and then a nurse appointment. For this, I spoke through a window and waited in the rain for an outside door to open. I can see the headline ‘Retired GP catches pneumonia awaiting blood test at GP surgery.’ (Would that have counted as a covid-19 related death?) Good thing I was not ill. Lovely nurse with great technique and painless bloodletting. Each contact with a human was pleasant and supportive, each contact with the ‘system’ the opposite. What a difference from when I was a GP, when the technology was limited, when there was much more personal contact, much more trust. Another change unsettling for me for sure. The NHS system is such a mixture of being so clunky, so user unfriendly, so administratively inefficient while full of wonderful staff – unless you are really ill when it is characterised by the three Fs. Efficient, effective, and free. If only we could get the management functions to match the standards of the staff.
As we witness ‘the great unravelling’ we will need to turn towards Macy’s great awakening which is summed up in a shift of attitude from focussing on who I am to what I am part of. She says: ‘I think the most important thing we need to hear is the voice inside us which connects us to all beings and to the whole web of life. That is needed now to counteract the crippling of the modern self, which is cruelly contained, as in a prison cell, by the hyper-individualism of the last five centuries.’
I remember Sir Francis Chichester returning from his epic around the world trip and coming ashore. He could barely stand up so used was he to the ever-shifting movement of the boat. Then he found his feet again. Perhaps his journey from a solid base, to endless movement, and back to standing on firm ground again provides hope for us all.
With love
Derek