PANDEMIC

Picture a world; in the not-too-distant future, where everything we know, everything we have become familiar with, and almost everything we have come to trust, ends.

At first, we make the assumption that it won't really affect us because 'we' are separate from all this. What we hear, what we read, and what we see, well that is happening to somebody else, someone; we think, we have no connection to, so therefore, we are safe. We are spectators, moviegoers watching the latest blockbuster, stuffing popcorn into our gaping mouths, and then poking fingers in our ears when we don't like what is being screamed at us. We were all warned at the beginning. "There will be scary bits!" But it's easy to just turn away when we don't like what is being shown. And yet we remain collectively glued to the unfolding drama on the screen and wait...

No finale to end the suspense, and no applause from the crowd either because, there is no hero, or heroine to save the day. In fact, the movie won't stop, it continues to unfold and we turn to find the characters, the someone else's appear around us. We are now a part of the story, but we don't want to be extras, we want to watch from the comfort of our armchairs. I for one have zero acting experience so I can't get involved. But, a proverbial stick is being poked into my ribs pushing me onto the stage.

"Didn't see that coming." I hear you say. Well actually... Now shut up, learn the script, and everything you've been doing up until now? Keep doing it, but do it completely differently. Suddenly; but with plenty of warning, we are confronted with unexpected obstacles to our daily routines, our work patterns become unfamiliar and disjointed, and nothing flows the way it used to. The 'movie' we were watching has now become our reality.

"Even Nando's? That's a bummer, I like Nando's... Can we go back to watching this on TV, please? I don't like it, it's not interesting anymore, it's too real." It always has been, but we employ the suspension of belief for as long as we can. Global Warming, that's another interesting movie. Along with Religious Indoctrination II the second coming. Human Trafficking and Child Marriage (pg). We watch these 'movies' because, as I said before, they're always about someone else, until they aren't.

Maybe, we should watch less TV, or maybe we should watch more. Maybe we should be less, Me Myself and I. Maybe we should have the clever scientific egg-heads in charge, or maybe not. Yes, there are a lot of maybe's there, maybe we should just be more us, and less us and them.

I don't know, I'm bored and writing to stop my brain from turning to mush, otherwise I might suddenly come to the idiotic realisation that I need three hundred rolls of toilet paper and enough pasta to make proper use of the aforementioned loo roll.

Conclusion. See the paragraph above. Now go wash your hands.