We can’t live risk free lives ...and that goes for me with dodgy lungs, as well as pupils and teachers
At the age of 53, with my menopausal mum-tum and imperfect lung function (the legacy of pneumonia after a bout of swine flu a few years ago), I should be very wary of leaving the house.
If I catch this virus it could go badly for me, but leave it I do: to work, to exercise, to shop for myself and others. It is a risk, of course, even though I take all the correct precautions and respect the advice on social distancing.
But it is, in my opinion, a risk worth taking. Not just because in some instances I have no choice, or because there are others in more tricky circumstances who rely on me; but because life is one long, controlled risk, and coronavirus is no different.
this is the dilemma the nation’s teachers now face. Although, of course, in my opinion, it’s no dilemma. Children, especially vulnerable children from poor backgrounds, need to go to school.
It’s not just where they learn the skills that will get them ahead in life, it’s also where they learn to form relationships, and interact with the wider world.
Good teachers, those for whom education is a vocation, understand that — and will, I am confident, accept some personal risk is necessary for this to happen.
From the moment we take our first breath, death — or the prospect of death — stalks us. But we don’t let it stop us. We ride bikes, climb trees, smoke, drink, swim in the night sea, drive cars, talk to strangers. And most of the time we get away with it.
It’s a trade-off, and part of growing up is learning to balance the potential for gain against the prospect of disaster.
Coronavirus has changed all that. Faced with this threat, we have responded by trying to eliminate all risk. the elderly and vulnerable have been told to imprison themselves. Children have been taken out of schools, the economy has been shut down, life has been put on hold. Fear is a prison of the mind, and we are all behind bars.
I understand the reasoning behind this. Stay home, save lives, protect the NHS. to do anything else would have resulted in a far greater death toll (though it’s always hard to prove a negative). But it is not, and cannot become, ‘the new normal’. Unless the country is prepared to accept financial, cultural and social ruin, we have to re-acquaint ourselves with risk.
I believe that risk — and man’s willingness to undertake it — is the source of some of humanity’s greatest achievements.
From the electric light to the moon landings, via almost every technological and medical advance you can think of, risk lies at the root. risk is inherent in our greatest works of fashion, art, music and literature, expressions of our human desire to push boundaries in pursuit of discovery.
to be alive is to confront risk. If no one ever left their home or entered a place of work without a 100 per cent assurance of safety, no one would go anywhere.
of course, there is a difference between diving headlong into danger and taking a managed risk. But it’s time to start living again. Slowly, cautiously, with every precaution. Because none of us can cheat death. But we can give the old Devil a run for his money.