Our Way of Life Needs to Change For Good

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Change feels uncomfortable because we instinctively cling to the things that are comfortable and familiar and fear losing them. It’s scary to contemplate an uncertain future — it might be better than what we have now but it may also be a lot worse.

There could be pots of gold over the horizon but there could also be dragons laying in wait.

2020 will be remembered as a year when life as we know it changed for good.

In the spring we went into lockdown — it was unsettling, unfamiliar and uncomfortable but we got used to it. Here in the UK, the government stepped in to prop up individuals and businesses and help us through. For a while there was a sense of community and public-spiritedness that felt positive — like a step forwards.

Life was still difficult, but we got by — together.

We diligently followed controlling measures and eventually things returned to new kind of normal. Pubs and restaurants opened and we socialised once again. Shops reopened, and people returned to work. Life was good until we got complacent. We forgot what it had taken to tame the virus and gradually let our guard down.

Now it’s back. Did it ever really go away?

As region after region re-enter shades of lockdown, many are looking once again to the government in the hope of guarantees. Assurances that the proposed measures will work. That incomes will be supplemented. That we’ll be able to enjoy Christmas with our families.

We’re looking around for the safety net once again. But that net is well-used and unravelling. The money is running out, as is the patience for a solution.

There’s only so long we can pretend that our old ways of life and the jobs that sustained them will all remain viable. Should we even expect that things will return to normal as we once defined it?

• Shopping may no longer be a viable leisure pursuit — wandering the high street or the shopping mall may become a thing of the past. We may have to redefine our needs and our wants in material terms?
• Maybe we don’t need 30 pubs to cater for the social needs of a town of 21,000 (the approximate ratio where I live) — Is going out to drink with friends a viable way to…