Far From The Madding Crowd
I was getting dressed and putting on my jeans when I realised there was a problem. I need a mechanic to service my washing machine, but in the present situation I don’t want anyone to come into my house. It would have to wait, but clearly its temperature gauge needs adjusting as all my clothes have started to shrink, particularly around the waist! Mind you, I have been honing my cooking skills throughout Lockdown, and seem unable to remember that I can’t take excess delights to relatives, as is my custom. So, given that I won’t waste anything, and that I have a small freezer, there’s been only one answer!! I think it’s called comfort food.
Changing into a loose-fitting skirt I go into my back garden, and walking through my wooden archway I’m aware of Wisteria leaves brushing my cheeks. I am amazed to find that my cottage garden suddenly resembles a jungle! Everything has grown upwards and sideways, branches have scrambled over each other in a Rugby scrum and bushed out over the pathway, seemingly overnight. Unable to find a machete, I locate a pair of shears and happily hack away for a while, dead-heading sodden roses and tying back collapsed bushes. Satisfied that my job is done, I decide to go for my daily walk.
From the beginning of Lockdown, it’s been as though an unseen power had waved a magic wand and ‘stopped the world’. I have been self- isolating for fourteen weeks now, as I wanted to be sure that I was virus free when my special son is finally allowed a visitor. It’s been one of the hardest things that I’ve ever had to do, but fortunately have managed to stay busy with the help of family and friends. At first it was a question of using my time in a different way, abiding by the restrictions, learning the lingo of technology that’s commonplace to my grandchildren, mastering its mysteries and then using it. I have entered a new world.
I begin my walk, as my thoughts spark off in all directions like a Catherine Wheel firework. Out of the blue, George Orwell’s book, ‘1984’ invades my mind.
I recall seeing the play performed in London and finding it unsettling and completely unbelievable. Looking back at Orwell’s ideas, it dawns on me that his portrayal of life in the future has actually come true…partially.
The play depicted a ‘Big Brother’ character who, using mandatory T.V. screens, retained complete control of peoples’ private lives, in an all- powerful Dystopian regime. Today we carry this ‘screen’ in our pockets and constantly interact digitally, the screen HAS taken over and there is far less personal contact. In a way this is dehumanising, and feeling a lack of power to make my own decisions at the moment, this resonates with me. George Orwell’s look into a future world was prophetic, but only to some extent…fortunately.
However, without this technology our lives would be really difficult to cope with. I’m able to enter ‘rooms’ during quiz times, regularly talk to family (far more often and for longer than before) and enjoy ‘seeing’ friends who live abroad. Lectures and seminars are easily accessible, but even so I am finding that time has begun to drag and I long for personal connection.
I carry on enjoying my daily exercise and note that my contact with fellow walkers has changed over time. Communication has progressed from a nod….to a ‘hello’, and now is always followed by a remark about the weather being… ‘hot’…. ‘windy today’… ‘can’t believe how cold it is!’ Our complex village banter!
My walk is over and I’m home, studiously washing my hands to a pre-war song my mum used to sing to me. It’s about washing your way to love and pleasing your man! Totally ‘non- P.C’ now, it made my granddaughter cringe when she heard it, but it lasts for 30 seconds and the memory of my mum’s voice makes me smile.
A delicious aroma is floating out of the kitchen and reminds me that there’s a casserole in the oven. I take it out and lift the lid…there’s enough to feed an army…anyone hungry? Stay safe everyone.
