‽istis reclaims ‘self-isolation’, the spirit of
Eyam, and redeemed and sanctified ‘webbery’ (weekending February 29th
2020)
‽istis – in good faith, not a little fear, but in great hope – waited and wondered…
‽ perhaps the 17th century spirit of
the good folk of Eyam[i] (and their village’s before-its-time, greater-public-health
strategy) still provides a model (medical and human?) for us today, though not
without cost and tragedy played out behind doors and in lives hidden both by
time and in current global statistics
‽ possibly, it may take an endogenous threat on
earth (not an exogenous ‘Independence Day’[ii]-style
threat from beyond the heavens) to help us realise that borders, and walls, and
nation-states, and a multiplicity of defining characteristics may primarily be social
or political or personal constructs – that can serve to differentiate but also divide,
that perhaps hide our common humanity
‽
maybe, in self-imposed or authority-imposed
isolation, another world wide web (of virtual connection) might be sanitized, disinfected
(‘detrolled’!) and washed clean through and buttressed anew with ‘posts’ of
support and solidarity; with information that can save lives and protect[iii] ;
with unexpected time-on-our-hands learning[iv];
with restorative real time link-ups and messages to family, friends and
loved-ones.
And, believing that ‘this too shall pass…’[v], if we can somehow later remember the sense of a connected web, ‘warp-ed’ and ‘weft-ed’ with strands of shared vulnerability but also strands of collective resilience, then just imagine how different the world could be.
© Pistis
[iii] https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus
[v] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0819cr0:
13:00 minutes in, thank you Messrs Mayo and Hanks…
