Diary 21

Wednesday, April 8th

The good news today seems to be that the giant pandas in Hong Kong zoo, relieved not to have swarms of people gawping at them, have begun to do something the naturalists thought they’d never do, they’ve begun to mate. Hopes are high. It begs a series of questions about people and zoos, doesn’t it?  I mean, how keen would you be to mate if you were surrounded by hundreds of pandas with cameras watching your every flirt? 

This morning I witnessed a helicopter over the town, surveying something from on high.  We haven’t heard that sound for nearly a month.  We used to get a dozen a day, noisily monitoring the traffic snarls – of which, of course, there are now almost none.

Yesterday and today were spent doing spring-cleaning like activities. Sorting out the garden seemed like a healthful thing to do, as did chucking a bunch of stuff out of the basement. Robert Frost once said that making some sort of order out of something, like making a woodpile, was salutary at time when life felt out of any real control. I took his advice and cut down the first sections of a dead tree I’d been meaning to get to. The removal will help the other trees to grow, but received noisy disapproval from our resident squirrels and a posse of bluejays. You can’t keep everyone happy.

Fortunately my young neighbor came over and helped me with this task – at a suitable 6 foot distance.  He did most of the heavy work, for which my gratitude is immense.  Thanks a  million Phil!

I had a lovely zoom meeting with an old chum and his grown-up daughter in England. Old friends really are the best – they ‘get’ us in a way that is utterly delightful. It was no trouble at all to chat and laugh and have a wonderful conversation. The daughter works at a Montessori school, (still open) and I am rather worried about her exposure to this virus, I must say…..

Shortly after this my son-in-law came by with the grandchildren in his car. We stood 6 feet away and talked. Everyone just wanted to get out and hug each other – Ellie (5) loves to be lifted up and spun around – but we couldn’t do that. 

I wonder if we were too cautious.

I mention this because several people have contacted me, talking about rather wild, fear-based theories. Some have said that covid-19 is not real. Others that it’s all because of 5G. Some think they have ‘the cure’ for the virus. I do not know what to make of such theories. They may or may not have validity. But until I have more evidence, real concrete evidence, I cannot give myself over to alarmism. 

Fear is real. It’s a very useful human emotion that helps to alert us to possible threats. But it’s only an emotion; it’s only one type of information. It is not necessarily the whole picture, or even truth. Let us not be led by fear. Let us do what we can to help others and stay safe ourselves.