Contributor: Jennifer:
Today we discovered that the bind weed from the church at the bottom of our garden was starting to make its first appearance of the year (oh yes neighbours – it’s back).
So, Saturday was spent digging a channel for us to put old paving slabs against our fence to slow the onslaught of this over ambitious plant. It did occur to me that here was a plant that was doing what is does best – a survival technique where it was multiplying and branching out; are we really that different? At the times of Cristopher Columbus, great sailing expeditions were going out to explore the furthest reaches of our planet, probably for the financial benefits rather than for survival but human nature isn’t that different to the plant invading my back garden.
Then my thoughts turned to the virus and its behaviour. It isn’t visible like the plant; you can’t plot a route that it will follow like a map; but we can estimate its behaviour and how it may spread. We are fighting an unseen rival, where the best weapon against it is time and social distancing. You can’t bargain with it, or rationalise with it – you can’t send teams of trained negotiators to work it out. All other threats have had an assertive solution or reaction, whereas for this issue it feeling like passive solutions are our only choice.
It is a frustrating period with a lack of knowing and a lack of doing.
We don’t know how long this situation may last, or how bad things may ultimately get. We know that keeping distances with loved ones, work colleagues, friends is our best chance to reduce the impact; but that feeling of being helpless against it is frustrating. So for now, the plant at the bottom of the garden is getting it!
