It's been 13 months since I last wrote an entry into The Covidiaries. Life has been passing by at pace and for whatever reason I neither felt compelled to write, nor try to understand or find answers to the issues that began to plague us early in 2020. Reading back some of those entries I see what a totally different world we were then in. A place which was completely alien at the time - an existence from a movie. Lives playing out in ways we would never expect. Death tolls mounting and an acceptance of it, we could never have imagined pre 2020. 12 months on and I realise just how far we have come during that time in our battle to stay alive and how now, as the battle tanks continue to bulldoze their way through Ukraine, a new threat to life as we know it emerges. I will come on to that.
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My 2021 Strava stats
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My last entry to The Covidiaries was my battle to fight the bulge. I had vowed to walk/run 100 miles a month for the entire year, with the main driver being to lose the stone I had gained during lockdown. I'm delighted to share that over the course of last year I managed to stick to this goal (I'm not good at sticking to things) achieving 1202 miles compared to 135 in 2020. And as I write this and scroll though my iphone to look at my stats so far for 2022 they stand at 77 miles and we are almost in March! What a difference a year makes.
2021 was without doubt a hugely positive year for me and my family. And as most people did, we adapted our lives accordingly to deal with Covid. We managed to avoid catching it and got vaccinated as was recommended by our government and the World Health Organisation. I have discussed the vaccine with many people and I do understand it is a controversial subject for some. I have a number of friends who maintain they will never get it done and to them I would say, that is absolutely your prerogative. I stand by anyone wishing to make that choice for themselves. The most famous one being the Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic, who said if it meant having to forgo major grand slams and never achieve the status as the greatest tennis player in the history of his beloved sport (amount of titles), it was a price he was willing to pay for the respect of his body. Many people slammed (pardon the pun) this as a selfish thing to do; saying those unvaccinated lessen the impact of the vaccine and indeed the global impact of Covid and the effort to contain the virus, which is perfectly viable, however, if you are a person with very strong views about what you put into your body and therefore you don't wish to have the vaccine, surely that should be your right? |
| 20 grand slam Djokovic may never win another |
On this point, I was very saddened to hear that a friend of mine who had been part of her neighbourhood walking group for some time had been completely ostracised by them when they found out she had no intention of being vaccinated. Global pandemics which kill millions of people will have this affect on decision making, understandably. I would like to think that 8 months on from when my friend was told she was no longer welcome on the ramblings that the world and its people have a better understanding Covid is most dangerous to those with underlying health problems. Perhaps those on the walking group are all fit and healthy and now don't feel the same threat which they did last year. Or am I being naive here? Will there always be a them and us when it comes to vaccination? What knowledge will we have gained this time next year when I look back at these diaries? How far will we have come then? Or will we have descended into a state of war...
As we go about our daily lives, as we learn to live with Covid and just when we are at the brink of dealing with it, along comes another devastating threat to life as we know it. The Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. Perhaps I should rephrase that as it would be wrong to suggest this evil president has just cropped up out of nowhere for he has indeed been a threat and tyrant for as long as I can remember. Not only does he glory in the physical aspect of war through force by any means necessary, he also seems hellbent on cyber warfare to inflict mass disruption to anyone standing in his way of domination. This is all the more horrific when as the world takes stock of the last two years, the loss of life, the financial and humanitarian impact against a backdrop of climate change bringing its own blend of chaos, we should be faced with a man-made threat to human life. I suspect I am not alone in thinking how barbaric this act of ego really is. This man is not made of any fibre of good; not even the tiniest, miniscule of goodness is within this man's being, for if it were, he would never, ever have gone to the lengths he chose to do, on the morning of February 24, 2022, nor any other of his maniacal measures since he came to power in 2012. I worry for the people of Ukraine. The wives without husbands, the children without fathers, the mothers without sons, which is sure to be an inevitable part of this wholly insane war as the ever patriotic and seemingly fearless Ukrainians prepare to lose their own lives in a bid to safeguard the future of their families and the land they love.
But as with Covid, when faced with adversity, there is always hope. A vision of hope was witnessed when thousands of Russians, in the immediate aftermath of its country's invasion on Ukraine, defied Putin's regime by taking to the streets in fury over their president's actions. What a wonderfully embarrassing display for Putin, for the whole world to watch. I look forward to the day when he is shackled and paraded in front of the world without his frightened side-kicks and hangers on. This will not only be a truly joyous day of celebration for the safety of our planet but will also act as a lesson in education for any would-be dictator to see how it ends.
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