I don't want to get my hopes up of any cricket at all this season.
Living in a flat without a balcony leaves me feeling jealous of people with gardens and a bit of company, for my life has become all work and no play at the moment. I am still required to attend work at the hospital of course, which does at least mean I see people, but with no sport (in real life or on the TV) and no pubs open, my social life, along with everyone else's has come to an abrupt halt with no real sign of when it will resume.
We've been warned not to expect things to ever get back to normal - which is as confusing as it is daunting - but reading up on the "exit strategy", the authorities have five tests for which they use to ascertain whether it is safe to open up society again.
1) The strain on the NHS. The strain on our health service has not been as catastrophic as we first thought - indeed, a whole Nightingale specialist hospital sits empty in a Birmingham suburb as I type, so the lockdown and social distancing measures have obviously worked.
Whether we have reached the peak of cases yet is hard to measure, but I have just read that the daily death toll is the lowest since March, which is a sobering yet positive piece of news amongst all the darkness.
2) Which brings us on to the second test, a "sustained and consistent fall in the daily death rate". It is too early to call this a "sustained" fall, for weekend figures are always distorted but there are potential signs that we are coming down from the peak.
Or the peak is a couple of weeks away. The truth is, no one knows.
3) The rate of infection needs to decrease to "manageable levels" before life gets back to normal, a mechanism no one can ever measure effectively because not everyone in the world is tested. While the official figures stand at over 200,000 cases, the real number could be millions.
Again, no one knows.
4) Bringing us neatly on to the fourth test, ensuring supply of tests and demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) is met for future demand. The availability of PPE has been a major talking point throughout this crisis; we haven't been getting all the PPE we need in a clinical environment, let alone the public getting what they need.
And Number 5 - whether all of the above would risk a second peak in cases causing more deaths, illness and, from what I can tell, the Government's priority - "economic disaster". Only until all of these are met will we see a semblance of normal life returning, and as April draws to a close, I can't see it happening any time soon.
So what do you do? With nothing to do apart from work - and many more with even less - you could be forgiven for thinking that everyone should be becoming a master of a craft, or working on being their perfect self - indeed, many think they HAVE to be doing this to be considered a "lockdown success", but this is far from true.
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| Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs |
(Abraham) Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs begins with the most basic human necessity, survival. This involves breathing, food, water (and sex - although, this is to be debated.) You cannot physically work your way up the hierarchy until the current needs are met.
Which is when we come to safety. "Security of body, of employment, of resources of health or property." At this most unique of times, nobody is guaranteed of these, therefore we cannot work our way up the hierarchy.
Even family and friendly relationships cannot be truly met under lockdown, and we are miles away from the events that people are expecting of others with "nothing else to do." Creativity, spontaneity, problem solving all play second, third or fourth fiddle to the safety and security of our being.
In short, it's okay to be a sloth at the moment. It's what the world is asking of you. To keep safe, keep healthy and find your way to the other side.
Good luck.
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