However, the appearance of the
coronavirus has produced many small miracles. When you phone people these days,
you don’t get their answering machine. They answer, in person! That’s because
almost all of us are always at home now, following the directions of our
Provincial Health Officer. And mostly we are not complaining about it but
instead are taking this opportunity to paint home offices, build bookcases, bake
bread, learn to knit, enrol in online French courses. A lot of home enhancement
and a great deal of learning is taking place.
Great creativity is being unleashed
right now. People who had never thought
of doing so are painting and writing. Many entertaining home videos are being
circulated which are engaging families and amusing viewers, e.g. https://youtu.be/wdcS0Nbo7Ng (you can skid the ads.)
My brother passed on a YouTube clip of
Colin Talbot, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Public
Administration, University of Manchester, interviewing three Canadian experts
about Canada’s response to the coronavirus -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV9mM-_FsoQ – which refers to a remarkable degree of
collaboration within government and between federal and provincial governments
in Canada. Not long ago, that would have seemed nothing short of miraculous.
The oceans are cleaner and the air is
clearer; we are reducing our carbon footprint at an unprecedented rate. Who
knew that it would take only a global pandemic to show us that we can actually
do something about climate change?
Of course, we have to find ways of
balancing the environment and the economy, but it’s possible that we could do
many things differently. For years some economists and social workers proposed
Basic Income as a means of covering minimal costs of living but such proposals have
been rejected as being impossible to put in place. The loss of jobs as a result
of the pandemic has caused governments in Canada and elsewhere to implement initiatives
similar to the Basic Income approach, proving that, where there is a will,
there is a way. Maybe some of these small miracles might continue after the
virus has been defeated.
We are encouraged, day by day, by the
increasing greenery in our world as spring arrives. On the west coast,
daffodils, forsythia, camellias and rhododendrons are bursting into bloom each
day. Nature is showing us renewal and resilience.
Here in my locked-down townhouse, I
have my own small miracle. The Christmas cactus that so delighted me with its
timely blooms in December has decided to blossom anew for Easter.
Miracles do happen. Happy holidays!
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