A Tale of Two Lockdowns

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Abstract

s on the pavement.In the second, the statistics go past, we don’t really take it in. The R, the curve, the tiers, no one is sure what anything means. We ignore Boris and it’s no use controlling the virus, we all do what seems good in our own eyes. We forget to wash our hands and we no longer smile at each other on the pavement. I am walking down the middle, you can move if I scare you.In the first lockdown, we stood at our doors and clapped. We felt an unfamiliar love for our neighbours, we danced on the streets and sang from balconies. Youtube was filled with videos of the humanity we all longed for. We will be kinder, more chilled and less stressed. We were optimistic, the world had changed.In the second lockdown, we briefly wondered how nurses and doctors were coping, they should be fine we reckon, not giving them another thought. Did they get a pay rise? or a tea station? No-one checked. We stayed behind closed doors, bored of zoom parties. We got more stressed, suspicious of Covid tests and vaccines. They tried to make us care, they failed.In the first lockdown, we enjoyed not taking the train to work. We used the

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time to get ready, put on our videos and pretended it was all the same.In the second lockdown, ‘you are on mute,’ we tell a colleague. Haha, the awkward laugh that masks ‘I don’t really care.’ We stumbled from bed to the office, still in pyjamas, got through the first few meetingsA tale of two lockdownsIn the first, it was ‘Covid-19,’ it frightened us, worried us. We had <a href="https://readmedium.com/12-questions-to-make-sense-of-your-lockdown-moments-fb40a3670dc1">12 questions to make sense of lockdown moments</a>, we reflected and found wisdom from several writers. We felt vulnerable, we could die any moment, so we lived.In the second, it was ‘the covid.’ A nuisance, an annoyance, inconvenience. We left the moments and entered the movement. The routine returned, we had things to do. We felt invincible, we had to live as best as we could, the walking dead.*Boris Johnson is the Prime Minster of the UK where I live. In the first lockdown, we had daily briefings from him and medical advisers. Now, I have no idea of what he says, it goes blah, blah, blah over my head.</article></body>

First in March and now in November, people are experiencing a second lockdown, here’s the difference

In the first lockdown, the birds seemed louder, the world was greener, we listened, we philosophied, we wrote. The planet was healing, the air purer. Everything mattered including toilet paper.

In the second lockdown, we didn’t notice the birds, the world was the same as usual, we no longer listen, the fumes returned, busy cars scuttling on crowded roads . Nothing matters, we all just want to get to the end.

In the first lockdown, we followed the figures, listened to Boris*. We were not sure how to stay alert, but we tried to control the virus. We sang as we washed our hands. We hugged the flower hedge as we waited for others to pass on the pavement.

In the second, the statistics go past, we don’t really take it in. The R, the curve, the tiers, no one is sure what anything means. We ignore Boris and it’s no use controlling the virus, we all do what seems good in our own eyes. We forget to wash our hands and we no longer smile at each other on the pavement. I am walking down the middle, you can move if I scare you.

In the first lockdown, we stood at our doors and clapped. We felt an unfamiliar love for our neighbours, we danced on the streets and sang from balconies. Youtube was filled with videos of the humanity we all longed for. We will be kinder, more chilled and less stressed. We were optimistic, the world had changed.

In the second lockdown, we briefly wondered how nurses and doctors were coping, they should be fine we reckon, not giving them another thought. Did they get a pay rise? or a tea station? No-one checked. We stayed behind closed doors, bored of zoom parties. We got more stressed, suspicious of Covid tests and vaccines. They tried to make us care, they failed.

In the first lockdown, we enjoyed not taking the train to work. We used the time to get ready, put on our videos and pretended it was all the same.

In the second lockdown, ‘you are on mute,’ we tell a colleague. Haha, the awkward laugh that masks ‘I don’t really care.’ We stumbled from bed to the office, still in pyjamas, got through the first few meetings

A tale of two lockdowns

In the first, it was ‘Covid-19,’ it frightened us, worried us. We had 12 questions to make sense of lockdown moments, we reflected and found wisdom from several writers. We felt vulnerable, we could die any moment, so we lived.

In the second, it was ‘the covid.’ A nuisance, an annoyance, inconvenience. We left the moments and entered the movement. The routine returned, we had things to do. We felt invincible, we had to live as best as we could, the walking dead.

*Boris Johnson is the Prime Minster of the UK where I live. In the first lockdown, we had daily briefings from him and medical advisers. Now, I have no idea of what he says, it goes blah, blah, blah over my head.