Time to grin and bear it
We need to talk about the teddy bears. We really do. It’s a wonderful phenomenon. That we care enough about each other to plant a parcel of cuteness on our window sills for others to delight in is inspirational.
My household has been inspired enough to put them on two window sills. They get changed every day. The kids love choosing which one will go where.
Their happiness they bring to my children and others is enough to overcome my anxiety that they are also inviting people to notice the ease with which our home could be robbed.
Who would do that during the Covid-19 crisis anyway, and at least they are not giving people nightmares.
Because some of the teddies are. Some people have taken to stringing their teddies up in windows or trees.
Most frequently the string is around their neck. This is practical and in times like this being practical is to be commended.
But it also means some homes look like they are carrying out capital punishment on our cuddliest citizens.
It leads one to wonder what a bear must do to be sentenced to such a grizzly end. Are they dealing drugs, refusing hugs or were they planning a revolution – equal rights for the stuffed and all that.
The mind boggles. I’ve also been boggled by how quickly and comfortably we’ve come together as a nation of dobbers.
Within 24 hours of police launching an online form, more than 4000 public reports of lockdown breaches had been received.
That’s good intelligence for the police to have but I hope each one of those complaints was preceded by a bit of investigation by the complainer.
Then, once they’d concluded the breach was real, they also concluded approaching to within two metres of the breacher to share their concerns was not possible. Because while it is vital we break the chain of infection and keep it broken, it’s also vital we maintain our sense of community while doing so. We should assume the best of people, not the worst. My hope is we’re saving those lockdown breach reports for genuine breaches and not just because we feel indignant that some people aren’t behaving how we want them to behave.
We are all in this together and, hopefully, we’ll all be at the other end of this together. We can’t forget that.