LOCKDOWN, DAY 10…

By now it has become clear, crystal clear, that Covid-19 was NOT an April Fool’s joke.  We are in our second week of Lockdown, with 1585 South Africans officially infected and 9 people deceased… Across the globe 64 784 people have died…

…It makes me think of the ancient Mesopotamian tale called “Appointment in Samarra”:  According to this story, a merchant of Baghdad sent his servant to the marketplace for provisions.  Soon afterwards, the servant ran in, white as a sheet, shouting: “Master, just now in the marketplace, I was jostled by a woman in the crowd.  When I looked closer, I realised that it was Death who made a threatening gesture towards me…!”

Trembling with fear, the servant asked the merchant to let him borrow his fastest horse so he could flee to Samarra, a town more than hundred kilometres away, where he believed Death wouldn`t be able to find him.

Sometime later, a bit annoyed but also curious, the merchant walked to the marketplace and found Death.  He asked her why she had made such a threatening gesture.  She replied, “It was only a sign of great surprise.  I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I have an appointment with him tonight in Samarra…”

Of course, the moral of the tale is that no mortal, whether a servant or a prince, can escape death.  The coronavirus has caused unprecedented disruption and has made its way into the worlds of sport, film, politics and royalty – Popstar P!nk, Prince Charles and former world-class tennis player Patrick McEnroe and famous CNN anchor Chris Cuomo are only a few famous people who have been infected…

Last week a bombshell study from a team of infectious disease experts at Imperial College in London predicted that without intervention the disease could lead to 510,000 deaths in Britain and 2,2 million in the United States alone.  We cannot help but wonder how many lives will eventually be lost…

…But I think this is enough bleak thinking for one day!  I have always prided myself in writing an uplifting Blog each week, and today will be no exception.  In her novel “Wide Saragossa Sea”, Jean Rhys starts with these words: “They say when trouble comes, close ranks…”

Although Rhys wasn’t talking about humans vs. viruses, she still knew that there are good ways and bad ways of closing ranks.  During these past few weeks every single human being has come to the realisation that we are all similarly worried, similarly vulnerable, and that thought alone, brings hope.

In the close circles of our homes and families we have helped each other cope, we have reconnected and strengthened our relationships.  In our home we have fallen into a nice routine of exercising, cleaning and preparing meals and official family-time of togetherness has been set between 18:00 and 20:30 every day, and has become so special.

Well-known psychiatrist Viktor Frankl once said: “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” 

He also said: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”  I have come to realise more than ever that the way we view these few weeks in isolation, will have a tremendous effect on our personal outcome and well-being.

We can worry about the fact that the number of divorce registrations in China has risen by 25 percent, or we can marvel at the opportunity to work on our own relationships.

We can complain about the fact that we are not allowed to go to the gym, or we can salute people like Stuart Mann, who has pledged to do a full home Ironman, by swimming 351 lengths in his swimming pool, riding 180km on a stationary bicycle and running 325 laps of his 65m x 2 driveway.

We can roll our eyes about all the Lockdown jokes or smile about the Indian couple who have named their new-born twins “Covid” and “Corona”.  Really, it’s a fact.

We can feel sorry for ourselves about the isolation or view it as the ideal opportunity for self-reflection – to discover once again what we stand for, finding our strengths, weaknesses, values, beliefs and desires.  We should all try to work out what makes us laugh and do more of it – and we should work out what makes us cry and do less of it.

While I’m missing my daily schedule and all my members desperately, I keep posting and creating content and even had the privilege of having Mariné joining me in a few online Tabata-workouts.  We have found that the living room IS suitable for a full-body toning workout, we have watched “A few good men”, I have started to read the five novels I have borrowed from Louise and while the statistics worldwide still floor me every day, I simply have so much to be grateful for.

I get to sleep in a warm, comfy bed every night, all my family members are still well, I have a beautiful garden, we have a whole cellar of red wine☺ and more than enough to eat.

Yes, we don`t know what will happen on 17 April, yes, we are worried because Health Minister, Zweli Mhize, says “the small growth in numbers may be the calm before a devastating storm”, but we`re still lucky.  We`re lucky because this is the worst thing most of us have ever had to live through.

You know, most of us go through life with an arrogant belief that we’re immune from the worst life can throw at us.  We’re not, and this isn’t about us anymore.  It’s about our loved ones, our parents, our children, the refuse workers, the police, the doctors and nurses, it’s about politicians who don’t know what to do and it’s about economists who don’t know how to make sense of it all.

It’s about everyone, and we will all emerge from this with a different sense of the word “community”.  Maybe we shouldn’t spend our time looking forward to the day when this is all over, because nobody knows when that will be.  More than that, nobody even knows what “normal” is going to look like by then…All we really have is now, this moment.  

In his book “Fate and Destiny”, Michael Meade says: “The old idea is that when tragedy strikes or when an obstacle blocks us, there are only two possibilities. We either become a smaller person or we become a bigger person. If it’s a real life change you cannot come out the same. So therefore, you’re either going to come out smaller or you are going to rise up and ultimately come out of it a bigger person.”

Have a great week 2 in lock-down, and may bigger, for you, means stronger, not heavier…☺ May you live in the present and still appreciate each moment.

Yours in fitness

Mirna

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