Wake Up New
"We do not want revenge. We don't want to gloat. We don't want to keep score. We want this never to happen again." — Charles Eisenstein
I was talking with a friend yesterday morning, on Zoom, as we do, and he told me that Covid19 saved his marriage—well, more precisely lockdown and the enforced proximity saved his marriage, reminding him of what was important. I have heard a few other similar stories, and while they are always heartwarming I am reminded that the Covid19 lockdowns ended many marriages too—people being forced together realised they didn't like each other very much, a realisation that often led to physical altercation. There were far too many reports of domestic violence during those early lockdown months,1 the reports perhaps only dying out because the incidents became so common that newspapers stopped reporting them.
Domestic violence and marriage breakdown are not the focus of this newsletter though, except as part of the greater whole. What the conversation brought to my attention, quite starkly, was just how little people talk about Covid19 these days, indeed (certainly in the UK) how little we have talked about it at all since the last lockdown was finally lifted on 24 February 2022. No conversation. Zero. It's as if we want to forget it happened at all, perhaps because we just want to move on, and fair enough, but more likely because we are collectively embarrassed by how we behaved during that time. There is ample evidence now to show that most of the measures we complied to, masks, lockdown, isolation (even, in some countries, notably Australia, isolation camps) were not only unnecessary2 but severely damaging to our collective psyche.3 We sacrificed the mental health of the many for the bodily health of a few—a few vulnerable people, yes, but it doing so created a mass of vulnerability amongst great swathes of the population, not least our young.4 Was it worth it?
The great silence that followed the final lockdown says no, no it was not. And it's better not to talk about it because it brings up all the shame we now feel, our foolish obedient compliance to people in power, many of whom blatantly flaunted their own rules—most likely because they knew there was no real danger. We feel like saps as a result of that. Who wants to talk about what a sap they were for two years?
The trouble is, if we don't talk about it, and each own our part in the madness, it will just happen again, maybe even worse next time—God help us, maybe Australia's approach to Covid19 will become the gold standard.5 More to the point, if we don't talk about it, and if governments, policy makers like the WHO, and influential do-gooders like the Gates Foundation don't admit wrongdoing, attempt to make amends to those they have hurt, restore lost revenue to businesses that went under, and redeem those who were shamed, othered and outcast by their mistaken policies we, the world, our society will never be whole, will never be healed; vast swathes of the population will always remain in a state of self-righteous denial, the rest in despair, denied their dignity, and even their income. Everyone loses. Charles Eisenstein in his response to Emily Oster's well-intentioned, but flawed article calling for a pandemic amnesty6 says it far better than I can.7
The way society responded to the directives to lock down, stay home, wear masks, don't visit your loved ones, etc. was, let's face it, a terrifying example of blind compliance to authority. I see it as part of a greater disease I call Leader Worship. We see this not only in our political system but in our workplaces too. The CEO and the entrepreneur are raised to a heroic, almost god-like status, their clichéd words plastered all over business blogs, quoted at conferences and published in inspirational books. It's quite scary the power that the billionaire tech leaders seem to have over our decisions and our thinking—power that we give them through our awe of their money. It's why people like Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg get to influence government policy to the extent they do. I'm currently reading 1 & 2 Kings, the two books of the Old Testament that describe exactly this phenomenon: the worship of earthly kings and false idols. The story doesn't end well.8
I'm sure reading about Covid19 was the last thing you wanted to do today, but if, like me, you feel a sense of disquiet about how two years of sheer insanity is being hushed up and swept under the carpet, then you may care to follow some of the links in the footnotes. We probably can't change the system, but we can change ourselves, and there are likely friends and family amends, and perhaps systemic ones too, that each of us can make to become realigned, to wake up new.
1 Domestic abuse and Covid-19: A year into the pandemic, UK Government report, 11 May, 2021
2 Britain got it wrong on Covid: long lockdown did more harm than good, says scientist, The Guardian, 2 January 2022; The Mask Mandates Did Nothing. Will Any Lessons Be Learned?, New York Times, 21 February 2023
3 Coronavirus: the consequences for mental health, Mind UK, July 2021
4 Study Reveals Lockdown Impact on Youngster's Mental Health, Swansea University, February 2022
5 This is what might await us: Inside Australia's Covid internment camp, Unherd News, 02/12/2021; Howard Springs: Australia police arrest quarantine escapees, 1 December 2021
6 Let's declare a Pandemic Amnesty The Atlantic, 31 October 2022
7 Amnesty, Yes—And Here is the Price, Charles Eisenstein, 3 November 2022
8 You can read these books yourself, or catch the highlights in my KJV365 reflections, 1 Kings and 2 Kings.
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April News
After two cancelations in June and October my sister Juliette and I finally hosted a memorial service for our little sister, Emily. It was a beautiful event, held in the grounds of an old mill house in Shoreham, Kent, the place we would spend our summers as children. Emily's spirit was very present, and friends from forty or fifty years ago came to read their memories aloud, and collectively remember this lovely, mad, dog-lady artist and taxidermist. There were a few tears; there were mostly smiles and laughter.
April is a month of blossom, and a month of birthdays for us, both my sons, Rayna, her sister, our daughter Zoe, and Asrai's best friend Leo. I worked less than usual, enjoying the Easter holiday with my family, greeting the sunshine when we could and slowly packing our belongings to either move house or consolidate into three rooms and renovate this one. Still undecided, but packing is necessary either way. I get a strange sense of satisfaction from the act of packing away my belongings, as if I am simplifying my life, becoming new.
I'm enjoying the entrance of May. Suddenly the weather is warmer, spirits are lifted and dawn breaks earlier and earlier. It feels like this —
A delicate fabric of bird song
Floats in the air,
The smell of wet wild earth
Is everywhere.
— Sara Teasdale, May Day, 1918
I hope to see some of you in London at the Scrum Exchange on 26th May. Until then, or next time here, enjoy the merry, merry month of May.
Tobias
Upcoming events
- The twice-yearly in-person Scrum Exchange will happen again this month, on 26 May. It's one of my very favourite happenings, a time to connect with some amazing people, those who invent and inspire, listen and learn, eat and laugh. All the good things. Join us!
- In-person CSM workshops are happening again, now once a month in London, so please spread the word. The next one is 6th-7th June.
- I'm continuing to illustrate my KJV 365 reflections with drawings, found images and contributed art. In April I added 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings. Please get in touch if you would like to express your inner artist and contribute to this collection.
- I'm always interested in your questions and thoughts, so Ask Me Anything and I'll respond. There are a few new questions/responses since the last newsletter.
- And finally, please check out The London Scrum Academy, my recently created home for all things scrum: workshops, certifications, articles, videos, books, and more to come...
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3rd May 2023, 3 pm