Wow, it’s been nearly two months since I last wrote in this blog. I didn’t mean to leave it so long between blogs, in fact I thought I would write more frequently during the lock-down. Instead, two months have passed, we have come out of lock-down in New Zealand in that time, and my writing has become less, not more. No worries, it’s quality not quantity right? So Corona virus still continues to make headlines and we wonder when it will all just go away. Although we have only one active case now here in New Zealand, we still have restrictions. We can now have gatherings of up to 100 people, up from 10 a few days ago. The kids are back at school (thank God, they were getting a bit tetchy in the last couple of weeks), and those lucky enough to still have a job have gone back to work. One can be excused for thinking that everything is back to normal. But it isn’t, is it? It all becomes pretty apparent when a trip to the shops is in order. The carefully spaced tape is still there, as is the hand sanitiser and perspex barriers at the counter. The lines are still there too, but not so much at the supermarkets, more the fashion retailers and telecommunications shops. Town is bedlam too, it feels like Christmas, people making up for lost shopping time.
It can be hard not to get frustrated going into shops. Hard to know what you can do and what you can’t do. One place might expect you to stay in a particular spot, or write your contact details down, while somewhere else may have very little in place. I have come to choose where I frequent depending on the level of regulation. I have found that getting growled at because I have not done as I was supposed to due to my lack of comprehension of the rules has made me weary of going back. I realise that these shops have to comply to stay open, but there are ways to tell someone that they need to ‘stay in front of the trolley, not behind it’. I get that those who work in front-line jobs, be it retail, medical or whatever, have had to deal with some pretty shitty behaviour over the past few weeks; they have done a stellar job in extremely challenging times. I am glad I don’t have to deal with people in these times, when nothing seems one hundred per cent clear as to what we can and can’t do. I expect they too are waiting for the day when they can go about their job like they did pre-Covid, free of masks and gloves and confused customers.
Every day we wait for the announcement that we are Covid free and we can go about our days without tape or masks or perspex screens. But we will still not be normal. Our borders will still be closed, we cannot visit family and friends overseas. Will we go back to how we were before? Or will we be constantly worried about the germs we might pick up from mingling with others, as we are reminded of every time we go out and have hand sanitiser thrust at us? Will we be allowed to go back to before we had to constantly sanitise everything or will they make it the new norm forever? In the meantime, as I ponder these questions, we will continue to wait, to hope that the rest of the world gets on top of this virus; not only for our own wants but so the world has one less thing to worry about. Then we can go back to worrying about world relationships and egos, pollution and violence. We can worry that we still have inequality in seemingly ‘civilised’ countries. In fact, we don’t need to wait for Covid to disappear to worry about that one, that is forefront of everyone’s minds right now (George Floyd RIP). I realise that I am going off topic here, but how many more have to be killed due to inequality in a post-colonial world?
When this is all over, let’s hope that our world does change. That we do think about others, that we think about what we really need. Let’s hope that we see everyone treating each other as they wish to be treated, and that everyone is treated equally. And as we have been constantly reminded by our government over the past couple of months, that we are kind (sad that we have to be reminded) to others, and as an extension, to our world. Having seen the memes over the past couple of months on social media telling us what we need and what we don’t need, how time with our loved ones has been precious, is it too much to hope that we will take on board these declarations of change when life goes back to normal? Or will it be like every other event in history, when our memories are erased, and repetition is reality? We are our own worse enemies after all.
The Honest Woman's Guide to Growing Up. 