Opening up and relating to nature

Hi everyone

I know many of you are curious about whether you have had covid-19 so I thought I would start with  an eye test.

So now you know

The 1st June is upon us and the country is starting to open up – schools, business, shops, sports and while some people are delighted and some fearful, pretty much everyone is fed up one way or another and the extraordinary Cummins saga has really lost the goodwill that Boris had just a few weeks ago. It is beginning to look like a free for all, with people taking their own decisions in the absence of trust and leadership.  It is also looking like an economic freefall in due course which may prove to be even more challenging than the pandemic itself.

So what may now happen?  If the scientists are right with their modelling then we would expect the number of covid19 cases to start rising in a week or so with the number of daily deaths rising in about 17 days.  Unless, and it is a big unless, the new centralised Test and Treat system is effective.  It has not got off to a good start.  Clearly the app used on the Isle of Wight still has its problems and to work it needs 70% of smartphone users to sign on (Singapore reached 40%).  So the system is going to have to rely on symptomatic people testing positive telling contact tracers whom they have been in touch with and for how long.  These contacts will then be phoned and need to be persuaded to self isolate for 14 days.  Even if they are at work, or have children at school who need taking and picking up.  Furthermore the authorities have said they will keep the personal data collected of both the people with a positive test and their contacts for 20 and 5 years respectively.  That does not feel right in such an independently minded nation.  In essence, I doubt the Test and Treat is going to work especially given the last week’s debacle.  So either the scientists are wrong or we are going to have increasing numbers of cases.  And it may well be they are wrong as a number of countries – e.g. Denmark, France, Germany – started opening up three weeks or more ago and have not seen the expected rise in numbers.  In which case not only the government but also the scientific community will have lost credibility and trust.  We shall see.

So looking for an upside the environment has had a good pandemic.  I have just looked at our energy consumption for May and it is the lowest ‘since records began’!   Compared with last year, we used a quarter of the electricity and did a third of the miles.  That is due to the many hours of sun feeding our solar panels and the simpler life which many of us are experiencing.  I am also astonished at the beauty of nature – the colours seem more dramatic, the sky clearer, and I have never been aware of such abundance (notwithstanding the coldest night in May for forty years wiping out much of newly sown vegetables).  Not everyone is as fortunate as us to live in such beautiful surroundings in the countryside – there are many people living without access to green spaces for instance – but at least parks are now open.  Studies have shown how important being in touch with nature is – there was a comparison of patients recovering in hospital after an operation having a bed either with a view of a green park or a brick wall.  The former group went home sooner and used less medication. 

Being in touch with nature is important for us all – it can help create the personal sanctuary where we can find some stillness, a centre if you like, to deal with the fears or impatience or other difficult responses, which many have experienced as being magnified during the pandemic.  It is particularly important now as lock down lifts and we face a whole new set of issues. 

Nature has shown that when left alone to its own devices it flourishes.  It is teaching by example. Will we as a society – will you as an individual – change your behaviour to live a more sustainable life?  Some tribes in the rain forest apparently make decisions based on their effect seven generations later.   That’s a million miles away for the perspective of our industrialised society and a government with a four year electoral cycle and agenda.  I do not hold out much hope that our PM can provide any vision notwithstanding his touching death and life in quick succession.  Wouldn’t that be something to pray for?

With love

Derek

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