A Guide to Covid-19 Protocol (Part 3)

Let down your hair

The final video in this Public Service Announcement trilogy, prompted by a discussion on hair-cutting  (as my sons squinted out from the thicket of their fringes), seeks advice on surviving isolation from a Master of solitary living: Rapunzel. Rapunzel, as you may imagine, has quite a few good ideas on how to make the most of living alone for a long period of time and happily shares some useful tips.

 

 

On Wednesday this week, the Dutch Government published a ‘road-map’ outlining a timetable of measures aimed at easing the lockdown restrictions and steering society back toward a pre-Covid-19 state.

Pre-Covid-19…remember? The reckless disregard for our planet, its wildlife, the air-pollution, the marginalisation of the vulnerable and elderly, the invisibility of the carer? Do we really want a return to that?

I’m no conspiracy theorist or religious nut but, sometimes, I find it hard not to feel a sense of  “Gaia Strikes Back” about this Pandemic – that something as radical as this virus (of the order of Old Testament Biblical behavioural corrections) was required to put a brake on human activity and force a re-examination of the way in which we live our lives.

I hope that post-Covid-19 times, privileged by this period of critical examination, will be marked by a new sympathy toward life: a new climate of care manifesting in an enhanced sensitivity toward our planet, toward one another. I hope that ‘getting back to normal’ does not mean a reversion to what preceded the Pandemic…

 

 

Many thanks to Art Arcadia for inviting me to contribute to their “Lockdown Residencies” programme and a very special thank you to Paola Bernardelli for her enthusiastic support for the work. Thank you to everyone who helped spread the Public Service Announcement message – in particular Colomba Damiani, Gemma McCooey and Dr. Blom. Bringing a smile to the faces of our harried medical staff, working to combat the effects of Covid-19 throughout the world, was a big part of the mission of this project. Thanks to their help, we reached many folk in this audience.