Page 36 - Through a glass brightly

everyone saying much the same thing - the unexpected benefits the situation has brought, how lovely it is to be unstressed, away from time constraints and appointments - even not having to take the children to school. The most remarkable was my son, who came out of the bush in Namibia just as the lockdown was starting to find all his work and therefore source of income for the year was cancelled and fell into a real despondency. Now, two weeks later he feels differently. He says he has been so stressed and feeling overwhelmed with work and once he had adjusted to the loss of income he began to relax into the situation. He and his 12 year old son have been wild camping on Dartmoor (where they live, they just walked from the house to the Upper Dart valley) - something that they both loved and which he says he never would have found time to do. He realised he can catch up on all the jobs on his land that he has needed to do for years and he feels better mentally than he has for years. Even my daughter and son in law said they feel so much more relaxed - and they are just recovering from corona! Mind you, they didn’t have it badly. And, of course, that’s it: we’re the lucky ones - other people are suffering terrible loss and others are making it possible for us to enjoy this leisured life.
Would I want it to go on like this for ever though? I met a neighbour whom I know slightly, the same age as us and living alone, and she said ‘It’s not really any different from my normal life...” And then I realised, no I don’t! I miss my face to face social life and all my activities. And I’m sad that this summer will see so many looked forward to events cancelled - book festivals and so on. And yet, as I’m expecting to get corona any day - how can I avoid it when the family next door have had it? - this looks preferable to that.
The phrase “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” came to me. I looked it up and it’s Nietzsche who wrote it. There’s an interesting website if you google it. All about post traumatic development rather than just the more familiar stress.
Sorry about this long rigmarole - there are not enough people to talk to here!
Saturday, 18th April
From Val M. at 13.20
To be serious for once, can anyone help me answer this question? I understand that plastic aprons and gloves are single use. But scrubs? I discovered yesterday that all over the country there are groups of people - called ‘For the love of Scrubs’, you can find them on Facebook - buying patterns and fabric online and sewing scrubs for their local hospitals. Why are the scrubs not laundered? When I worked in hospitals doctors’ coats, also worn by physios, social workers etc. etc., presumably to protect us from germs, went to the hospital laundry and came back to the depts in piles, ready to be re-worn. Please don’t tell me that scrubs, those tunics and trousers they all wear, are thrown away after use? Of course, they need to be washed at a very high temperature - so make them out of pure cotton. And facemasks - why can’t they be made of cotton and laundered? How can we possibly keep up the supply globally if they are disposable? I have a terrible suspicion that hospital laundries may have closed down. Does anyone know? And as for whether we should all be wearing masks outdoors, it’s hardly rocket science to see the benefits in not passing on the virus. I’m sure the reason that the government are not recommending it is that they are afraid of it putting more pressure on supplies to front line services. But using a scarf is equally effective as well and making masks is simple - and judging from the numbers of people making scrubs, people would happily turn their hands to making masks and distributing them - it’s a great deal easier.
I really miss having friends on hand to thrash these things out with!
From Janet at 13.38
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