Life's a Beach
CoVID-19: Day 19
A
friend reached out to me this morning recognising my stress and it hit
me. I’d reached information and emotional overload and I was responding
to triggers on Facebook — my strings were being played and I was singing
like a bird. Fortunately I held it together but I could see why I was
feeling adrift last night. Yet I can’t imagine what frontline staff are
going through, watching people die, seeing their colleagues fall prey to
the virus and being exhasted and ill equipped.
I
guess there is some cognitive dissonance at play when we find ourselves
as extras looking on as the paid actors play to the camera, acting out
their roles as we suspend our disbelief. Its the stage hands and
technicians who keep the whole thing going but only get a mention in the
final credits which roll as the audience leaves the cinema. If the film
set were a battle we would make up most of the casualties, the
techicians would be the medical unit, the director and producer would
watch from the sidelines and the lead actor would believe in his own
invincibility while never actually firing in anger.
The
whole political scene plays out like a sick farce
while those who are most influential and best rewarded
are the least competent
while those who are most influential and best rewarded
are the least competent
Its
scarily like a cheap soap opera, conducted by invisible directors and
fronted by ham actors. All scenes take place in manufactured stage sets
constructed using MDF. What happens external to the convertable rooms is
left to our imagination and hints dropped through incidental lines in
the script. That’s where the real action is taking place and where our
hearts are engaged but we are left to fill in the blanks ourselves,
unconvinced by the contrived lines mouthed by a few people who are
playing someone else.
But
we are not an audience, we are the public and the actors are nominal
public servants who wouldn’t understand servanthood if they did a
masters in it. The whole political scene plays out like a sick farce
while those who are most influential and best rewarded are the least
competent — the lions truly are led by donkeys. We are now being asked
to raise £5 million for the NHS while the concern of billionaires like
Richard Branson, who sued the NHS in little more than a fit of pique, is
to first protect their ill gotten obscene wealth.
My
day turned out to be OK. I got some stuff off my chest this morning,
had a constructive afternoon completing an important phase in a project
I’ve being working on and joining in a fun virtual quizz this evening. I
also have an online gig I’m hosting, to look forward to. There is a
certain rhythm to this lockdown — hopefully I’m getting into it.
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