Care and share

I TRIED to not write about COVID-19, dear reader, I really did. But this extraordinary and unprecedented challenge is impacting us all, so there really is only one story at the moment.

The whole world is seemingly being put into surreal slow motion, losing much of its mojo. Nations are entering into various states of self-imposed isolation and we are expected to exercise “social-distancing”, which must surely be ontarget for 2020 Word of the Year.

A giant wet blanket has been thrown quite brutally over our lives and much of the freedoms inherent in our day-to-day living. How quickly have our lifestyles and much of which we took for granted been turned on their head in a matter of days?

We yearn for the “normal” that was life just one month ago. As one who naturally greets people with a handshake, it’s taken quite some self-discipline to retrain myself to offer an elbow instead!

Virtually all gatherings, large and small, scheduled in coming weeks, months and beyond have been either cancelled or postponed, mostly cancelled.

Some of these were for charities, the funds raised critical to their capacity to provide their vital community services. In some cases, their survival could be at risk.

As for the AFL, it will be weird for spectacular efforts and mercurial skills on-field to be met with the sounds of silence, apart maybe from croaking crickets.

This is anything but business as usual.

There is uncertainty and not a small degree of fear.

The collateral implications of all this will become slowly apparent but will be of a significant, unprecedented order.

We are also learning much about the character of our nation. The biblical question of “Who is our neighbour?” is being tested to the core.

Will we be found wanting? To paraphrase perceptive words written by Bruce McMillan recently, when we next judge desperate people seeking asylum from war-torn countries, remember we fought over toilet paper.

In addition to fears of economic recession or worse, there has been talk of an associated “social recession”, such is the isolation many people will find themselves in.

Much of the current community sentiment feels like the days and months after the Pyramid collapse in June, 1990, although a tad eerier. At that time, certainly in the Geelong community, there was palpable despair, a bleak future and

“How will we get out of this?” But we did, after a few tough years and significant difficulties for those directly affected. Life did go on and slowly became much better. So what are some practical things we can do?

Being positive is a great start — we will get through this. The sun will rise over Corio Bay every day, magpies will still warble to greet the morning.

Spend locally as much as possible, supporting local businesses — and the people who work there — that are so dependent upon and crucial to the Geelong community.

Turn those early scenes of feardriven shopping panic into many, many more random acts of care and looking out for each other, replacing “March madness” with “April altruism”.

Your favourite charity fundraiser cancelled? Donate your ticket cost online and add in a few dollars for those door-prize raffle tickets. Your charity will really love you.

Re-book your concert or theatre tickets for when rescheduled. The arts will desperately need your support to rebuild.

And what a wonderful time to reaquaint ourselves with Geelong’s many superb public parks and rugged national parks.

Crucially, as proactively as possible, keep in touch with your friends, if only figuratively. “Socialdistancing” does not mean “socialdisconnecting” and actually challenges us to proactively connect in other ways.

By the time this is all over — if it ever quite is — and we emerge from the COVID-19 fog, we will learn so much from this experience, including all the innovation and lateral thinking a crisis of this magnitude inspires.

Our society — its working life and social norms — will be changed, possibly for ever. But when life in Australia does eventually return to a semblance of normality, what celebrations there should be of all that is good in our community.

Roll on Christmas!