My comfort blanket

Somedays during this pandemic I’ve found it hard to take myself off and out for my daily exercise. My solution was to take my camera with me. I find it acts as my comfort blanket. It helps me to take my mind off what is happening in the wider world, and I’ve ended up with some pictures I’m both pleased with in photography terms, and some which have been very useful in my art. Here’s a small sample in slide form.

The world turned upside down II

It’s become a bit of a cliché, but life will never be the same again. Clearly the reactionaries in charge will do their damnedest to return to ‘normal’ but I don’t think even their worst efforts will be totally successful. Too many people will have died to keep things the same.

I’ve found this time to be both calming mostly with bursts of deep anxiety every so other. There are times when I feel helpless. We all are I suppose. Then there are times when it all makes total sense and I am at one with my fragile existence. My life isn’t how I’d like it to be but compared with many I’m very fortunate. I am managing some fulfillment with many of my Maslow needs being met.

Thankfully I've been quite prolific on the creativity front. In fact I think I’ve been more creative in these two months than I’ve ever been before. It’s quite incredible. But just as my creativity has gone from 0 to 60 in this time, other things have fallen by the wayside.The obvious one being politics. I really can’t be arsed. Yes I still hold the same political beliefs but do I want to sit in on endless Zoom meetings? No, I don’t think I do. So I've decided not to stress about it and take a break. I may come back to it. I may not. Quite frankly apart from survival not much else greatly matters. Life truly is a day to day existence. There is no future.

When life evolves into some kind of consistent new normal, perhaps I will go back to some of my old life. Or perhaps I won’t. Right now I continue playing in cyber space and making art.

Crisis! What crisis?

In our current situation, coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, it feels like the world has been turned upside down, that life will never be the same again. Many people will die. Many will lose loved ones. Many will suffer hardship and mental anguish. This is a very frightening time. This is nothing. It’s a dry run. A practice. A mere picnic.

Those that survive will need to learn from this. The lessons from this pandemic must not be forgotten. Somehow we have got to try and communicate to the idiots that things have to change.

You think this is bad, large numbers of people dying, having our movements restricted, and with the difficulties of being able to buy everything that we would like because of empty shelves in the shops? You just wait for the progression of the climate catastrophe. It’s going to be like the fictional hell. You can panic buy as many toilet rolls as you like. You’ll never have enough to cope with the amount shit that’s going to go down. When the tipping point comes, and it will come, the infrastructure that is our life support will tumble like a pack of cards.

Think about the floods we had a few months ago, now the pandemic. There’ll be all sorts coming. Extreme weather, natural disasters, crops failing, mass starvation, violence as people with muscle (weapons) try and grab as much as they can. And it won’t be every so often, it will be everyday. There will be more deaths than those living can cope with. Bodies will be left to rot. Basic utilities will fail and won’t be replaced. There’ll be mass migration to areas that still have some resources. The human race will go into meltdown.

Some might consider this the wrong time to be commenting on this but this is exactly the right time. We are currently living through a rehearsal for the future. If people can’t appreciate it now they never will.