The dark side of the fairytale
Like so many other industries, lockdown threw media into the unknown. We had no idea if we would survive it.
Nostalgia is a powerful filter. A year on from the nationwide lockdown that put us into the middle of the history books, it is an effort to remember anything but the good about the experience.
The unhurried weekends, the uninterrupted time with my family, trying new dinner recipes, and the walks around a neighbourhood suddenly alive with neighbours so that it really did feel like a team of five million.
It was the most incredible of times and I loved every minute of it.
Except for those minutes which I didn’t. There were plenty of those.
Right from the start there was the gnawing anxiety that despite the lockdown, Covid-19 might get its hooks into us and hundreds or even thousands of us would die.
That may seem naive now. It wasn’t then.
Against this background I also worried about my job.
Like so many other industries, lockdown threw media into the unknown. We had no idea if we would survive it.
If we didn’t, how would I provide for my family? Mine was their sole income. Job hunting in a pandemic seemed like a doomed undertaking.
Even if I didn’t lose my job right away, it seemed clear the economy was going to crash and burn, so I would lose it eventually.
Our plans to build a new house went straight into the bin.
Until then I had not realised how much energy I derived from the future.
When the future was without promise, even the present felt bleak.
From that point of view, lockdown was awful.
A better situation than the alternative so conveniently on display in the USA, UK and Italy, but still something that we would have preferred to do without.
I can see now I had a wonderful experience of lockdown.
I had a job, my family was with me and the weather was so obliging I spent most of autumn outdoors with my kids.
Like so many of us, I was healthier and happier than ever.
Except that experience wasn’t as universal as it may seem one year on.
For many the country’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic made their life a misery they cannot forget.
Thousands lost their jobs, finding themselves cast adrift financially at a time of great uncertainty.
Border closures cut families off from one another.
Sick parents suffered and died without their sons and daughters to comfort them.
While some businesses were able to adapt and thrive, many others closed, taking the opportunity and variety they added to their communities with them.
Then throw in the housing crisis. Lockdown was where that particular nasty began.
A year on from the breathtakingly exciting drama of the first lockdown, it would appear the Government’s strategy has worked, and we are on the cusp of beating Covid-19 within our borders.
That’s a fairy tale to be celebrated and told for generations to come.
But such observance of our success must always include an acknowledgement of what we have sacrificed.
As with all fairy tales, it is the dark side of the story that lets us fully appreciate the light we find at the end.
Nga¯ mihi