View From The Back
We’ve been desperate to get back out and find some normality again, but how ready are we?
It feels like we should be preparing for landing. Seat belts on. Tray tables up. This could be a bumpy ride. Is anyone else a little bit nervous about a return to normality? I can’t remember how to file my nails, eat anything other than toast, or speak to big groups of people. I’ve basically turned feral in lockdown.
All being well, we’ll be allowed to meet in groups of six this week. Our life has been like boring black and white TV for months and suddenly it will be glorious Technicolor.
But in the excitement will we have forgotten how to behave?
My friend Tracy got dressed up to go out the other day. She squeezed into her best dress and swept on her lipstick. Then off she went – for her smear test.
I laughed for a good five minutes when she told me. A routine health check was the most exciting thing she’d done for months. It felt like a night out.
The first day we’re allowed into pubs we’ll be so hypersensitive we’ll be drunk on the smell alone.
After only talking through screens for ages our social skills will be all over the place. How do you press the mute button on an annoying conversation if the person is physically in front of you?
Scientists recently discovered that a songbird, the regent honeyeater, has forgotten its song. The breed’s numbers are dwindling so fast that the young never encounter another bird that can teach it how it goes.
We’re a bit like that. So isolated, we’ve forgotten how to chatter.
All we can do is congratulate ourselves for getting through, remember those who didn’t, forgive each other’s lack of social skills and bloomin’ well enjoy.