OUR SENSE OF HUMOUR WILL KEEP US AFLOAT
THE word “surreal”, meaning “dreamlike”, “unreal”, comes to mind during this lockdown. The whole family has to deal with this. Parents now work from home. Our routines, rituals and rhythms have floundered under what is happening.
Days merge because we no longer enjoy the organised hours of work or school, or the weekend agendas of relaxation and enjoyment. Sleeping and waking hours have been changed or negated.
Even the churches and casinos have agreed to close their doors. One cynic suggested that if God and the Devil reached consensus on this matter, the end of days is near. And it is this bizarre humour that is my theme for this week. Mankind refuses to be cowed or bludgeoned into submission. So I will regale you with surreal and bizarre anecdotes.
Death is a reality. Covid-19 made sure of this. But history is crammed with ways in which mankind dealt with this reality. It is said that Chopin’s last words were his request that he be cut open to make sure he was dead before they buried him.
George Washington left instructions for his body to remain visible for two days before internment, just to be sure he was dead before being entombed. And in 1769, Lord Chesterfield also left very odd instructions for his internment.
These anecdotes come from the previous pandemics that ravaged Mother Earth.
The term “saved by the bell” has surreal resonances. During the plague, people were seen to drop down dead in the streets. Hence the nursery rhyme Ringa-ringa rosy, /a pocketful of
posies, referring to the natural herbs people carried as versions of today’s sanitisers.
Macabrely, some of the “fallies” were only comatose. Yet they were buried.
During excavations long after, coffins moved to other sites were found to have finger scratch-marks on the inside.
It is said that, during and following epidemics, bells were tied to the fingers or toes of corpses in case of accidental premature burial. A night-watch was set up to listen for ringing bells, in which case hasty action could still save a life.
Hence the term: saved by the bell.
And the labour term “the graveyard shift”.
Now, I may be accused of cynicism. But strange times evoke strange actions.
There is a clip doing the rounds that the testing buds are themselves contaminated. A wag immediately comes up with an “ear mask” to stop the insertion of ear buds into the ear for whatever reason.
Our death figures haven’t peaked yet. Yet people are exploiting the situation, targeting the living.
Can you imagine the gravestripping and other such obscene acts that may be perpetrated when the inevitable anarchy descends? Nothing will be sacred any more. Grave robbers are still a reality. Accident chasers still rob victims of car accidents.
A security company snidely reassures us that criminals may not be in lockdown, but neither are they. My cynicism is a reminder that we are not ready to lie down. We still have our sense of humour left to keep us afloat.