Lockdown reflections

Since lockdown started, Françoise and I have earmarked Friday evenings for painting, and we have decided to ‘convert’ some of them into cards/notelets, to send the odd message or so.

What has been noticeable whenever we have been out walking, is that people are beginning to say rather more than ‘Good morning/hello/ hi!’, adding comments, even if only about the weather or the traffic. There seems to have been an increased friendliness.

A frequent conversation for several months seemed to be about the inability to have one’s hair cut, and the various attempts to trim excess hair! I appreciated the touch of humour when Francoise came out of the shower room one morning clutching a piece of loo paper to her ear, saying “Whoops – I’ve done a Van Gogh!”

We have been so grateful for the sheer amount of programmes that have been made available: from Glyndebourne, the National Theatre, the Royal Opera House, the RSC, the National Gallery, the Royal Academy . . . so much we have enjoyed.

I have been thinking about William Blake’s “Without contraries is no progression” and it seemed to me that lockdown severely curbed the excesses of the past and that the eventual outcome may give rise to a more moderate “progression”, perhaps with people travelling less, noticing more.

Further reflections have been superimposed on the painting found on the pdf you click on below.