A tipping point

Subject: A tipping point.

And so now we understand that the virus is with us, for ever. The caution we currently have will no doubt slowly die as our assumption of what it means to catch the virus become similar to those we have for catching flue and instinctively forced into a recess of the mind. The assumption that 'we' won't die, it will be someone else who dies is also the way we get through the crisis points in our lives, that innate confidence that the crisis is someone else's crisis, not our own, carries us through.
One of the social concerns of this pandemic is that we begin to mistrust each other and start to see other people including friends and family as a potential danger, a carrier of the virus and therefore an enemy.

 If we begin to stigmatise everyone around us as a danger, to shun any physical contact including those physical mannerisms like a kiss or a hug, those signs of friendship like a handshake, then we are in danger of becoming emotionally stunted and instead become extremely risk averse.

The risk of being having a car accident is a statistical case in point. The numbers of people setting off each day, should induce fear if we stopped to consider the danger. We regularly visit parts of the world where disease is prevalent. We accept the danger of pollution and that it kills millions of people. Climate change is brushed aside and we continue to inflict our destructive life style on the planet, oblivious to the damage and the disruption our children will face.

Our response to this virus has been like no other. The world has been closed down at the behest of the scientist, the economy is in tatters and the picture of devastating unemployed will only add to man's inability to remedy his or her actions.  The question might be asked. "Is it correct to protect sections of society through a lock down, with its curtailment of over excited lifestyles if, by so doing the lives of others are ruined".
Of course there was a time when restaurants were not a must do destination, when travel was limited to relatively short journeys from home, when the only fast food outlet was the corner fish and chip shop.
The explosion of consumerist outlets and the people employed in them, are a relatively recent phenomena and it could be argued that their disappearance,  for a short time  is not too high a price to pay until you consider the people put out of work. Would our lives be forever stunted by not having a 'Chinese' or the more dubious refinement of 'Sushi' on our doorstep. Maybe Blackpool Tower rather than the Eiffel Tower, maybe the sound of a glottal stop rather than the helter skelter of an Italian conversation over a glass of vino in Rome.
Being released from the grip of hurrying thoughtlessly through our lives and missing that vitally important opportunity to find space to communicate with ourselves has to be a plus. To be able to look around and value isolation, as a time when we are able to do things which interest us. Time to value our own mental and psychological health rather than just the physical satisfaction of 'being there'. 
The herd is outside the gates gnashing its teeth at the loss of GDP but perhaps, for the first time in your life, time is on your side to consider who you are and what you really value.