Hope will be our new driving force

ALL at once summer has arrived, reaching into our locked-down lives and bringing with it the colours of white and aqua blue, as daylight stretches out, ripe with expectation.

It is the season with logic of its own, a collection of weeks when anything is possible, or of days progressed in an endless sequence of moments. And after the spring we have had, of fear and dread and of desperate loss, more than any other in living memory, this should be a summer book of hope that makes us want to believe again.

And we do believe. Yet we must be careful. We can not give in to the abandon of a moment, sweet though that moment is. This summer, above all others, we know we must tiptoe lightly into the dusk and lowering sky. That does not mean we should not take pleasure in a wind blowing down from the pine woods. We do, and for many that will take us back to our childhoods, to the memories of holidays at home and of simple pleasures in what seemed a simpler time, of our lives wrapped up in the senses of touch and taste and smell.

But we can not lose sight of where we are, in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic which may have been beaten from our homes and streets, but which lurks in the shade or the corners of our everyday lives. On a weekend such as this, the third bank holiday of the lockdown, and the warmest by far, it is easy to forget the new realities of our lives. And in many ways it is tempting and maybe even good to step aside for a while from the rules and regulations which have governed our every move and thought these past few months, to light up the barbecue with family and friends and neighbours around. Tempting certainly and good too, but at a social distance, however contrary the arguments are about the length, breadth and width of that distance, a metre or two or somewhere in between.

Certain myths have persisted too; among them that Covid-19 does not like the heat. Several studies released in early spring have showed how a change in temperature could affect the virus. However, the results have been conflicted and hampered by weak data.

“One should not assume that we are going to be rescued by a change in the weather,” Dr Anthony Fauci, the US expert and household name, has said. “You must assume that the virus will continue to do its thing.”

But as we enter the month of June, hope will be our driving force. This weekend we report that the experts here anticipate with caution that some of the restrictions which have governed our lives may be lifted sooner than anticipated, such has been the strength and resolve of the public.

This is welcome news. Summer may not be lost after all. The reasoning is in our hands. Throw off your shoes by all means, or feel the warmth upon your back. We are coming towards the beginning of the end. A second wave may, or may not, be on the horizon, threatening to break across our lives. But today is not the day to worry about that, for we are in the prime and vigour of the year and all things are glad and flourishing.