Being Alive

There is a big difference between being alive & simply living. It's basically about quality of life. What makes your life worth living? What makes you happy? What gives your life meaning & purpose? Are you happy with just being here, breathing, not dead?

Well I'm not. We face another lockdown on Thursday. A month of basically staying at home for most of the time. People like me who live alone & were shielding can still see friends or family in our "support bubble" thank goodness. But we face hours & days of solitude - again. We are thrown back on our own resources - having already spent 3 months in our homes & done most of the things that occupied the time & distracted us from the reality of Covid.

I am perfectly capable of doing my own risk assessment for both my own & other people's continued health & well being. I am not convinced that we are on the correct course of action to deal with Covid. That conclusion is based on trying very hard to compare the UK trajectory to other more successful countries. 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/10/continual-local-lockdowns-answer-covid-control

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32007-9/fulltext#seccestitle10

 

We are not learning from countries that have previously had Covid type epidemics. Countries which were far better prepared than we were. Countries which had invested time, effort & money to heed the warnings, years ago, that this pandemic was coming. Our government is stuck in an expensive rut which is killing people & possibly destroying our economy. 

Unless we get a prime minister & cabinet that is prepared to really listen to people who do know what they are talking about, accept that the present strategy is never going to work & change course, we are doomed for years to repeat this cycle. People like Prof Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh.

I want to live, not to just exist in a vacuum of housework, paperwork, communicating via my computer, reading, watching TV, eating & sleeping. I would actually be prepared to risk getting Covid if necessary. I accept the fact that it might kill me. Dying is a natural part of living. The important thing is the quality of the living. I don't want to simply watch life going on through my window like I watch the TV.

I am unlikely to get Covid if I am extremely careful. Therefore, if I follow the rules, I am unlikely to pass it on to anyone else. Therefore I will not be a burden on the NHS. I am a responsible adult. I should be able to live my life in relative freedom whilst respecting the rights of others in my community.