Fast forward to late summer 2021 and one sunny morning we wake up and switch on the news … “The Covid-19 pandemic is officially over, all restrictions are lifted, we can go back to life as normal” Yes, I can guarantee the nightmare will be confined to the history books, but did we learn anything from this history lesson?
Let’s rewind to this time last year and bear with me here …
I guess most of us have seen the dreaded computer message … “Warning – Once started, this action cannot be stopped or undone – You will lose all of your settings and data! – Do you need to do this?” I have just avoided this disaster with my new phone trade-in deal, but while I was watching the circle go round (whatever happened to the egg timer?), I realised a similar thing happened when Covid-19 hit the very first human being … except there was no warning and it was definitely a case of “this cannot be stopped or undone!”
So, that’s where the similarities end … or do they?
We certainly have a back-up in our own memories, but they have taken a real battering and no-one around the world has escaped the grief that the unseen Covid-19 enemy has brought upon us!
The cost of getting to the point of reset has been mind-boggling with politicians around the world talking in multi-billions and trillions of every currency as they support economies and search for the way out.
However, there is no “undo this action” button and the best we can hope for is the range of vaccines which seem like manna from heaven right now!
The most terrifying part of Covid-19 is the huge amount of suffering in deaths of loved ones and permanent damage to the health of countless others and of course it’s all far from over.
Then there’s been the cost to business and individuals who have suffered bankruptcy and loss of livelihoods, not to mention the immeasurable mental toll on millions of people. The scale of damage around the world feels like something from the Hollywood horror writers and goes way beyond anyone’s worst imagination.
However, there is some good news coming out of the Covid-19 saga and these are the things we must not ignore as we hit the vaccination reset button.
The level of Carbon in our atmosphere dropped dramatically when cars went off the roads and the planes stopped flying. The strange thing is that pre-Covid, farmers were blamed for causing most of the Carbon pollution, but of course food production continued throughout lockdown which has exposed the real global warmers!
We cannot afford to ignore the facts that driving and flying less and converting to electric vehicles has to be the way forward.
Who had heard of Zoom before March 2020? But now the screen has become the new normal and our own company – FJA For.You carries out a lot of training online with a blended learning approach. This saves a massive amount of fuel and time with a lot less travelling for face to face meetings and training. Of course, nothing beats real human interaction, but let’s not forget the lessons learnt here!
One thing that lockdown taught a lot of us most of us is that working from home is entirely possible and should probably become a new normal … what can be more Carbon neutral than a commute from the kitchen to the home office!
Zoom can never replace a hug with families and loved ones, but in the future it could fill in the blanks for when we simply can’t get to see them.
So looking forward to Summer 2021, as and when we hit the reset button of mass vaccination, please can we remember lessons we learned over the long weeks and months of the pandemic?
Three things we learned in 2020 …
We slowed down, talked more to our families and neighbours and appreciated the beautiful part of the world we live in.
We don’t have to fly abroad for holidays and a staycation can be just as relaxing.
Working from home (if that’s possible) could and should become normal.
Of course, everyone has got their own Covid story, and my heart goes out to those who lost loved ones or have ongoing health issues as a result, but maybe we should take one thing we did in the pandemic and change our ways for the future.
My hope is that our old way of life stays where it belongs in the history books and we start again in late summer 2021 with a very new normal!
Richard Jones … Founder Director FJA For.You
@farmerjonesy