Well, only when it's sunny.
It is somewhat disappointing to realise how weather-dependent my mood is. A grey day, and I find it hard to find my sparkle.
Fortunately, much of lockdown time has seen sunshine, if not always temperatures to match. Just as well or I might not have had much mojo for the past however many weeks. Look, I love having time to read, to write, to think, to explore ideas. To me, this is travel in the landscapes of other people's minds. It is socialising with the absent, even the dead. That is intrinsically meaningful and thus brings pleasure of a sort.
Just not the sort of pleasure that makes you jump for joy or smile at cute kittens.
It's a common phenomenon. When happiness researchers used to do surveys by phone, they first asked people what the weather was like before doing he survey as it would always skew the responses one way or another.
Talking of happiness, I emailed the American economist Jeffrey Sachs the other day - an act of desperation and hubris as I wanted to get a sense of how big thinkers feel that a positive impact can come out of a crisis. He was kind enough to reply, but couldn't offer much in the way of any guarantee that the world will get better. Not for several years yet. By which I mean in terms of leadership, those who value social equality and the elimination of poverty, well-being and life-flourishing. But he did point me toward an academic called Professor Jan-Emmanuel de Neve.
On the latter's resumé, I found this document about when it would be wise to end lockdown in the UK. The researchers took into account various factors: economic impact, mortality rates, harms of isolation, unemployment, strain on the NHS and so on. They concluded that August 1st looked best. With June 1st offering very little benefit and any earlier registering a negative outcome, all things considered.
So, the very night I was looking at this our Government, in their wisdom, start loosening restrictions. With schools due to reopen on June 1st.
It makes you wonder, doesn't it?
I've spent weeks suggesting that it's better to avoid blame. And I appreciate that the Government feel pressure from many quarters - not least from the public, perhaps - to start opening Britain for business. It gets harder, however, to feel that much learning has been done in the past seven weeks. I have not looked into what has been made public about their reasoning. If they have been transparent about their decision-making, if they have made it clear that restrictions will tighten again should the infection rate or mortality rate rise beyond a publicly stated level, if they have reinforced the dangers presented by this virus in order to encourage citizens to maintain social distancing guidelines, then I feel that my criticisms would be muted. But if that is not the case, then, frankly, I am disappointed.
The skies cannot fully clear until leadership, globally, rises to the challenge. And that may be a long time coming.
My bubble is fine - until my savings run out - but I fear for our society if the wrong approach is taken.
This feels strange to me - as, essentially, my level of concern has increased over the period of lockdown (despite my personal pleasures in contemplation time). The sense that we have been containing appropriately moderated the worry. One watches the situation start to decline again in countries that have opened up and the reality hits. I suppose that it is not viable to fund a nation for an unlimited time - and the balance, it seems, has not been found.
We will see. I may be wrong again as I was initially. I am glad that my decisions count for nothing. I do not envy the Government. But I would love to know what their scientific advisers actually advised.
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