In Equal Measure

It doesn't make sense to blame the year.

Other people can be blamed for tardy and inappropriate actions and we can be blamed for not always giving our best - but blaming a year makes no sense at all.

The world does not reboot on 1 January. We are not in a television show.

Revisiting some of my earlier blog posts on the strange circumstances in which we find ourselves charts the almost unbelievable developments of the last 10 months.

From the enormity of the situation becoming apparent, back in March, through the infested waters of May swiftly followed by highlighting the shame of my generation and then coming up to date with the notion that all people either create or destroy - yes, it all makes for a startling narrative.

We all know people who haven't made it through the emergency. Some have been taken by the virus and others in ways almost certainly related to the situation. Some were take by their own hand; others by illnesses exacerbated by the dark and depressing times in which we live.

It is hard to see a way through the lies and incompetence and it is pointless to dwell on who did or didn't do as they should have done. Suffice to say, washing hands to the tune of Happy Birthday was extremely unlikely to ever be an effective frontline defence against an artificially enhanced virus which was always going to bring the world to its knees for at least two years.

The emergence of new spikes and virus mutations were always extremely predictable. People are angry, bored, lonely and confused. Of course a significant number of them will break the rules, either occasionally or regularly.

It will take some time for the long-term effects of the virus to be known and the side effects of the bewildering array of vaccines which have all somehow appeared simultaneously will also take time to manifest themselves.

Forget the blame game; it is far too easy. Let's go inward.

The lives of every person have been changed. Physically, mentally, emotionally; so much has changed. Who can claim to have changed for the better? Who has not aged more in the last few months than during any other comparable time span?

The stronger of the people amongst us have a responsibility to help anyone who is struggling, for so many reasons; not least of which is the certainty that the roles can be reversed at any time. Who can make the clown laugh?

Personally, the last few months have presented to me the challenge of navigating the steepest learning curve since I started working for myself, back in 1988. The challenges have been different this time and certain aspects of my life have changed beyond recognition.

Some friends have drifted away; others have become much closer. Events, dreams and desires are all seen from a new perspective. When the darkness descends I endure a tidal wave of emotions and it seems every wasted opportunity and every mistake I ever made are all etched more deeply in my mind. Keep busy; keep creative.

Very few things will ever return to how they were and that will take a lot of getting used to. In fact, the world as we know has had it and my advice is to await the opportunity to squeeze as much fun out of life as you possibly can, before it is too late.

To bring this mini-series of posts full circle, I will say again: We are all valuable and fragile in equal measure.

Where do we go from here?