Is the day of reckoning upon us? I don´t think so although at the same time I feel that were it true it would bloody well serve us right. No I am not about to give a sermon on the failing of our ways to back that up but to deliver a snapshot of the state of our little nation at the very top of Mälargatan 6C in Västerås.
Things have moved rapidly in the past few days reminiscent of my childhood Saturday morning matinees when the film broke, speeding up the action and the sound track to suddenly plunge the whole cinema into total and silent darkness for a few seconds before the lights were turned on.
No apocalypse so far but our film has certainly picked up speed. Will it break? Your guess is as good as mine. A week ago we went shopping not unduly concerned with reports of the Corona virus tightening its grip on Europe but with extremely clean hands. No shortages although on a normal day I might have reflected that our supermarket was running low on toilet paper. Sweden´s civil defence authorities have a policy of encouraging each family to be prepared for a self sufficient period of up to 72 hours including rations and a few other necessities. Having heeded this advice for a couple of years now we see no reason to stock up further.
Last week we also attended our weekly Bridge session although there were significantly less people there. Only the week before that we hadn´t given up on going to to Spain to see an old friend. This despite the fact that at the time he was stuck with his companion and her elderly mother and described the situation there as being under martial law. It´ll probably all blow over before May, we thought then. However with the dramatically mounting death toll in Italy and Spain and daily reports of the increasing number of deaths in other countries resulting in stricter measures to restrain the virus, we have for the time being decided it might be wise to place ourselves into voluntary quarantine. This strategy is being recommended to risk groups including the over 70s by the Swedish health authorities.
The strategy adopted by Sweden is facing a great deal of criticism abroad and I have of course no way of knowing who is right and who is wrong. There is however a small degree of consolation in the fact that whatever expert you listen to you will at worst be listening to some imperfect science rather than a perfect populist politician. It may be well to remember that the former will do all in his power to save lives, the latter all in his power to save himself. Small pause for reflection…..
As Gunilla and I are both retired, self isolation was actually quite easily done. In fact it is remarkable how a few routine changes, in our case mainly on a weekly basis, can result in us not getting closer than 2 metres to another human being. Sadly, family gatherings, our weekly Bridge sessions and my beer club evenings will be on hold for a while. In this day and age we no longer go to the bank or Post Office and payments both large and small can be handled by credit card or mobile phone Swish transactions. Supermarkets even have automatic lockers outside for orders made on the Internet to be picked up, once for the stressed, now for the worried. No more meals or a beer at the 19th hole of course but a round on the first 18 is something which will be on the cards as soon as the weather improves. Thank you Anders Tegnell.
Decisions as with personal goals are best made with the intention of complying to them or achieving them and they gain credibilty as well as stability by being time tagged. In this case we have given ourselves a time frame until the end of April coupled to an ongoing analysis of the world surrounding us and the different approaches countries are adopting in their fight to keep their citizens alive.
A Swedish proverb ”hope is the last thing to leave a human being” gives me some comfort and saves me a portion or two of embarrassment when I hope things that really are not all that hopeful. On a personal level I hope that we (kids and grandkids) will still be able to travel to the UK in July for a canalboat holiday. I hope that the virus will succumb to warmer weather. I hope that a vaccine will turn up sooner than the assessed 18 months. I hope that whatever measures are being taken in various countries that they are all successful in reducing the spread of the virus and deaths. I also hope that this teaches us all a lesson whether it be about the climate, pandemics or populist politicians.