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In the time of coronavirus

A collection of stories submitted by the public on their experience of living through the time of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The coronavirus pandemic has changed our lives. Globally the scale of human suffering as a consequence of Covid-19 has been very great. Everywhere people are now reflecting on what this major and previously unimaginable global crisis means for us, as individuals, living in the 21st century. This forum offers a space for writers to reflect on their experience in Aotearoa and to consider questions such as: What might we need to remember and preserve? What has been my experience, my observations, how might my priorities have shifted, in a good way, as a result of the lockdowns? If you would like to contribute to the re-collective effort through any of the following life writing formats — journalling, nature writing, memoir, commentary, poetry, notes on work in progress during lockdown… — please make initial contact through my contact page. Next prepare a page of A4 writing, starting in the present moment and moving where you need to into the recent past and forwards from that point, with a title, brief bio, photo (optional) and your contribution will be added to the repository of important writings flowering in this space.

"We are here; we are human beings; this is how we lived. Let it be known, the earth passed before us. Our details are important."
Natalie Goldberg, Writing down the Bones (1986)

Danger and Safety in the Time of Coronavirus by Liz Wilson

13/5/2020

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Liz was born and educated in Scotland and has lived in Aotearoa for most of the past fifty years. She is gradually edging her way into retirement. 
 
28th April 3 new cases, No deaths

I sometimes think that I have been waiting for a global cataclysmic event all my life. I knew, as a wee girl growing up in Scotland, that life was a risky business. So coronavirus has not come as a great shock to me. 

While we are leading confined lives in COVID-19 Lockdown in our homes here in Aotearoa, I hear the voices of my Scottish forebears saying that a wee bit of isolation never hurt anyone… In comparison to their generation’s experience of two World Wars, the Spanish Flu Pandemic and a Great Depression crammed into a thirty year period, our experience of COVID -19 seems like a walk in the park. My parents, who were at university during most of World War 2, spoke of dancing, overnight fire watching at the Hunterian Museum and outrageous escapades. Of their reality: bombing, evacuation of children, conscription, menfolk away fighting, injury and death, the Clydebank Blitz and rationing: they said little.
 
The spread of coronavirus is currently under control here and we in Aotearoa seem relatively safe for now in Lockdown Level 3 — well sheltered from the danger of contracting the virus compared to most other countries in the world. I feel very safe at home cosseted in my bubble. I feel unconcerned about my lack of ambition to come off Lockdown trusting that safe decisions will be made at the correct time.
  
The way ahead, as we gradually access less restricted lives, seems a careful balance between safety and danger — the safeguarding of the health of the nation while attempting to open up the economy again. 
 
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Copyright © 2017 Deborah Shepard
  • Home
  • Books
    • The Writing Life >
      • Reviews & Interviews
    • Giving Yourself to Life
    • Her Life's Work
    • Translucence
    • Between The Lives
    • Reframing Women
    • Tributes
    • Personal Writings >
      • Lockdown Journal
      • Travel Journal
      • Elegy for a friend
      • Christchurch - Post Quakes
      • On a residency
      • Deborah’s Love Letter to the Women’s Bookshop
      • Deborah's Q & A With Unity Books
  • Writing Memoir
    • Defining Memoir
    • The Participatory Model
    • Tips on Writing and Posting a Story
    • The Value of a Writing Class
    • From writing course to book publication
    • Your Writing Space
    • Writing on a Theme >
      • Window
      • Surviving a Crisis
    • Reviews of Memoir
  • Writers' stories
    • Covid-19 Stories
    • Writing Guidelines
  • Events
  • About
    • Testimonials
    • Media
  • What People Say
  • Contact