On Feeling Overwhelmed in the Time of Coronavirus

What is this "new normal" anyway? What was the old normal? 
What are the latest government guidelines? I stopped paying attention when Boris Johnson gave such conflicting advice that I was left scratching my head. Stay in, don't stay in, go out, shake it all about. Go to the park with strangers but don't hang out with your family. Oof. So, what's the latest? Everything is back to normal but it's a new normal where we wear masks (unless you're being a bit of a prick, to be honest) and stay at least 1 metre away from everyone (except when you're in the supermarket where basically all of that goes out of the window). 

So, here's a thought I've been discussing at length. 

Life is tough enough at the best of times (is that just me?) and my mood fluctuates wildly most weeks (mostly downward if I'm honest) but lately this has got worse. And it's not just me. Here's why, I think: All of our regular struggles are being played out against a backdrop of chaos, misinformation, a global pandemic, and the worst recession we've seen for 300 years. Although, let's face it - how much money was even around 300 years ago? It's a crazy comparison to make in my opinion. Also, we weren't there so how can we compare? There wasn't even the internet 300 years ago. What a savage time altogether.

So is it any wonder that we are all feeling so despondent and despairing? There's an abundance of crazy people around and we have the joy of seeing it on whatever social media platform you choose to look at, there are incompetent leaders in the UK and the US and look, whatever your political persuasion is you must admit they've made a pig of this whole situation. We're no New Zealand after all. 

People's incompetence, although usually staggering, is worse than usual and people have a problem with wearing masks. And here's why: the masks protect others. If we were all to wear one (or those of us who absolutely can) then we'd be in a much better situation now, it's just science. But, as I said, they protect others. If they were marketed as protecting YOU from others more people would wear them with less fuss. And this is nothing new, by the way, We haven't become more unreasonable. During the 1918 Flu Pandemic the exact same thing happened. Except that then air travel wasn't quite the thing as it is now. 

But hey, at least terrorism isn't such a massive thing at the moment.