It's been almost a full year since Ireland went into its first lockdown to stop the deadly virus in its tracks, yet here we are in the third - or is it the tenth? - lockdown and the numbers show we are worse off than last March. Suppression hasn't quelled the case numbers, but it sure has done a fantastic job in dampening dreams and jobs. 2021 is an uncertain sequel to 2020 in many ways. While the hero of this sequel is Captain Vaccine, we are being told a face mask (or 2 or 3) and 'social distancing' is still required. The only face mask I want after all this is the strawberry scented cream from the spa. I don't think I'm alone in that. Yet, our voices are also being quelled in what we want. No one is highlighting a metabolically healthy lifestyle to ease the effects or the fact that many of us want our businesses to open again! It seems censorship is leeching its way into 2021 too - as seen with Twitter suspending many accounts.
While the old leader is pacified, America's new sleepy helmsman is quietly signing more executive orders than any other president. More instability is rocking the economy and the fault line is quivering. The bigger picture, however, is not as important as the small picture - where cafe owners no longer have an income or livelihood. People are throwing in the towel, falling deeper into their physical and mental isolation. I can't imagine the torture some families are enduring.
Whether rich or poor - a minority or a majority - it's not a competition about who has it the worst.
I'm fortunate to have the mountains at my doorstep, yet I still struggle with job loss and travel bans. I look at fellow walkers and wonder which ones are working from home, which are jobless, who lost a business, a friend, who got sick, who is thriving?
