I managed to get out in to the garden this morning before 10am, which felt like a minor victory. Firstly because the swelling on my knee had decreased sufficiently to enable me to step down on to the pathway with a cup of coffee, and secondly because the sun was out and the wind was still gentle. I took a book Dylan had bought me for my birthday.
Today was pickup/delivery day, we had a couple of parcels arriving and one big box of photography equipment that was on loan and needed to be sent back. We also had to negotiate visiting a small business nearby and making payment for something routine, which became a lot less routine, once I started thinking about how best to do it.
Last night we were out applauding the various people that are our friends, neighbours and friends of friends, who unsurprisingly are key workers. We’ve always known they were key workers, as is anyone who is involved in supporting the welfare of other people, enabling us to have food to eat, collecting the bins, etc…
I hope many of those children for whom this will be such a formative experience will keep that truth close to their hearts as they grow in to a world which might otherwise try to insist the opposite is true. That somehow the commitment of people to doing work that is socially useful suggests they should be financially penalised, or treated with less respect than people whose privilege enables a belief that their lifestyles are the result of a ‘meritocracy’, an initially appealing idea that dissolves as soon as you examine it.
Gwyn and I continue to work from home, today she spent a long time in a phone meeting, planning more work for her class and now and again making pancakes with some blackberries we’d picked last autumn that were in the freezer. In-between planning, finding resources and negotiating expectations of parents, social workers, children and others she has also managed to make cashew butter. I’ve also rediscovered (it was always there) a sardine can top from Cannery Row, made famous by John Steinbeck.
Good to hear you can leap about a bit or at least clap and take photos. No symptoms yet. Small TV screen only major drawback in life. Bit annoyed at the virus, but it apparently does not see itself as annoying. Might go read some SF.
On Fri, 17 Apr 2020, 18:51 Streetphoto Online: Reflections on the ‘Documentary Impulse’., wrote:
> Graeme Chesters posted: ” I managed to get out in to the garden this > morning before 10am, which felt like a minor victory. Firstly because the > swelling on my knee had decreased sufficiently to enable me to step down on > to the pathway with a cup of coffee, and secondly because the” >