Let’s get some perspective...!

As a morning run has replaced the gym I was out as usual early this morning. The streets are mostly deserted, the other runners I met gave me, as I did they, plenty of room. When I turned towards home I saw a couple walking on a small patch of open ground, as I drew level with them they had reached the side of the road across from me. The road is a good four yards wide plus the width of two pavements, or sidewalks. Imagine my surprise then when they stopped, hesitated and then tried to move further away. As they did my good morning wishes to them was met with a look I would reserve for a mad axeman.

Running on laughing at the absurdity I reflected on the near hysterical levels of fear we seem to be witnessing in some quarters, whilst at the opposite extreme we can observe the reckless selfishness of those gathering in city parks and beauty spots oblivious to rules of social distancing. Divergence of view is hardly a new phenomenon but really, what are these two groups of people thinking?

One group living as though we are about to face a nuclear attack and the other who simply don’t care about anyone else. A worrying trend that has been with us for a while, it is merely the current circumstances that has brought it into the open.

At the moment the UK is caught between the risk of a severe economic downturn by maintaining the lockdown rules too long and overwhelming the health service by easing them too soon. Over the weekend I read one expert softly chiding Government ministers for dismissing experts during the Brexit campaign, only to go on in the same article and disagree with other experts writing over the weekend. I wonder if he spotted the irony. The one thing experts do seem to be able to agree on is that data available to model predictions or even to estimate what has happened, is scarce and inconsistent. The way this is being reported in the media is sadly feeding extremities of behaviour. Sowing more seeds of doubt is not helpful.

Whilst the experts argue over who is more right, we could look at some facts we do know. According to the Office for National Statistics in 2018 in the UK, 541,589 people died, which is 1,484 deaths every day, or 10,415 deaths a week. One of these was my late wife who died in March 2018. As a consequence of her long term illness, her struggle for life and the tough, but compassionate, conversations with doctors towards the end I believe I have some basis on which to argue for a change in our attitude to illness and death. Once this crisis is over we will learn how many extra deaths have occurred compared to “normal” years and maybe a sense of how many of those deaths would have occurred in the near term in any event.

It is a difficult aspect of life to accept that one day we will all join the statistics. Fear of being ill and dying are understandable. But hysteria is not. We must learn to accept that life is difficult and can be tough.  Accepting this reality can make handling life and working for a better future more fulfilling.

Over the years in our society we have sought to make life so much easier than it really is, removing risk at every step. Each generation seeking to ensure their children do not find life as hard as they did. It seems we have got so good at this that we are increasingly incapable of coping with small dangers let alone manage in the current situation.

I am old enough to have known many people who lived or in some cases fought through the Second World War. At times one lady always comes to mind, she worked as a nurse in London during the blitz. Now that was tough.

Maybe this current situation will prove to be the call we need to wake up. I have noticed that a sense of entitlement is not the exclusive preserve of millennials but has become pervasive across society. A sense of entitlement like fear, will neither serve oneself nor our loved ones or wider society.

Since we will all become part of the statistics one day it behoves us to live life to the best of our ability, to give back more than we take. I urge everyone to take the risk of living.