SPECIAL ISSUE #47🙄
THE POWER OF TOUCH - THE NEW NORMAL
„Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.“ — Albert Einstein
The Power Of Touch is actually a post I wrote more than two years ago, on December 11th, 2020, and I just stumbled over it again - I believe that’s when I stoped watching television altogether. When I reread it tears welled up remembering why I wrote this piece in the first place and want to share it with you, simply so we NEVER FORGET!
I am torn whether I want to write something critical again about the current situation the world and all of us are in, or spend my time on more positive things. The topic COVID-19 seems to be almost all consuming and very difficult to avoid, so I might as well write my very unscientific and personal view on something I saw recently, that I simply cannot get out of my head.
To be honest I am sometimes terrified of what is happening around us. Terrified of so many people being uncritical and still believing that the measures are for our safety and our own good. I saw a television report a few days ago. Usually I avoid these reports and the main stream news, as I find it absolutely impossible to bear. Even if you watch something else, they have found a new way to terrorise the greater population with an ad where people pathetically describe how awful this disease is and how someone in the family died (I have never seen something like this for influenza, diabetes, cardiac disease, stroke, cancer etc.), or how they were affected by COVID, so television is really not an option any longer, at least for me.
But I am drifting off… Back to the television report I saw. The report was about an 80-something year old man that has had no contact to his family in a long time. A man that had worked all his life, that is now lonely and devastated. Now here comes the great news: his granddaughter that he hadn’t seen for a very long time is on her way to visit him. Yes, she can finally see her grandfather. You see nurses hanging a plastic curtain that has two plastic sleeves on each side in a hallway. What happened next made me and my 17 year old son cry. The man stands on one side of the plastic curtain and the granddaughter on the other side. Both are gloved (although the sleeves are closed at the ends – I assume so they don’t need to disinfect or clean the sleeves after) and stick their arms into these sleeves and are now allowed to hug one another. What made my son and me weep (and trust me when I tell you that a 17 year old young man does not cry easily) was the humiliating scene, the undignified contact between two family members and worst of all was to see the mans face pressed into a plastic curtain which reminded of a crime scene where someone is suffocated with a plastic bag over their heads. What terrified me more than anything else is that it actually made the man happy for a moment. How desperate must someone be to be happy about hugging plastic? To top it off, this was sold as an innovation and something wonderful. Am I too critical that I cannot see the beauty in this?
Just a week or so ago we picked up one of my sons friends and his mother came outside with him. As I had not met her before, I got out of the car to say hello and introduce myself – I am a polite person – and walked up to her and stretched out my hand, which she took. Immediately she looked at me and said that she could not even remember when she last shook someones hand. She smiled at me and seemed almost grateful for this simple gesture of normality. It shows the need we have to be in “touch”, to actually touch other people. We are not made to be physically isolated from one another. It is, for example common knowledge (at least I think so) that babies that have everything except physical contact have less chance of survival than babies that are loved, touched, cuddled, lovingly cared for and caressed. It is no different with us big people. So no matter what anyone tells you, use your common sense. Before this socalled pandemic, we did not hug or kiss people when we had symptoms of illness, be it a common cold or a stomach flu and it is no different now.
SO KEEP ON HUGGING!!!
„If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.“— Francis of Assisi
This second post I want to share with you is one I wrote just a week later - The New Normal? I believe both are good reminders of the madness we have been living with for too long now.
What do you do if you have a common cold?
Have you tried lately to sneeze, cough or blow your nose in public? Probably not! To be honest, I have not changed my personal behaviour since March of this year. I do not wash my hands more than I used to, I certainly do not disinfect my hands or anything else and I only wear the hidious mask if it cannot be avoided (I still find it repulsive and refuse to accept it as the new normal).
What did we do when we had a common cold before March 2020? We did not hug people, we kept our distance to not infect others, stayed at home as much as possible. When we did sneeze, cough or blow your nose in public, the worst reaction was perhaps people looking either away or looking at you with slight disgust and bit of annoyance.
Today this has completely changed. A few weeks ago I went to our doctor with my son – nothing serious – and in the waiting room (with a lot of space) my son dared a small cough (it was more a harrumph to be honest) and two people looked at him with fear, got up and left. Now I really do have a slight cold with a bit of a runny nose, an occasional sneeze, and my voice is a bit raspy… nothing to write home for. I have no fever or any other unusual symptoms. And no, I am not going to run to the next COVID test station to find out that I have nothing but a common cold. Today when you are ill in any way, people look at you in fear, sometimes even with hate in their eyes and you are seen as a potential death threat.
I keep repeating myself when I say the economy will most likely recover in one way or the other but our society will not recover that easily. People are becoming more aggressive and the brainwashing propaganda through the media is working. I am so unbelievably tired of this omnipresent topic of COVID-19 that I want to scream – and yet I keep writing about it. But I simply refuse to keep my mouth shut and accept the way we are forced to live as the new normal. IT IS NOT NORMAL!
It is not normal that people run around with masks all day! It is not normal that neighbours denounce each other. It is not normal that children are not allowed to play together. It is not normal that you are not allowed to visit your relatives. It is not normal that the whole world is on its knees for a virus that even according to the WHO is not worse than an average influenza. It is not normal that the collateral damage is accepted without even as much as a mention.
I have written about it in another blog and it shocks me again and again that it is apparently not tragic that people take their lives out of desperation, that people do not dare to be treated for serious illnesses for fear of infection. It brings tears to my eyes that domestic violence continues to rise, to name just a few. What this is doing to our society is beyond words.
And yet I have hope! I hope because all else would be devastating and I try to keep as much control over my life and my sanity as humanly possible. My door is and will stay open to my friends, my relatives and everyone who is in need of company, a friend, kindness and a hug.
The new normal when you need to go see a doctor in Germany is still absolutely hideous. If you have symptoms of a cold you need to get tested before you are allowed into the practice. In other words, you wait outside in the cold until someone shows you to a separate room to take a swab. Then you go back outside, into the cold, to wait for the result. If you test negative you are allowed in. If not, you have to wait until the last patient has gone. You have to prove to be “healthy” to be treated by doctors whose job it is to help the sick. That is sick! Unfortunately not much has really changed in the past two years and I am afraid that people still do not realise how many liberties have been stolen from them to never be returned.
NEVER FORGET!
„Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.“ — Viktor E. Frankl
🎶My Song of the Week
Is an old song asking a great question… Where Do We Go From Here - Peter Skellern
For more good music, go to this Spotify playlist where you can find all the songs from the Change & Evolve Letters!
📚My Poem of the Week
Is by William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Memory
A pen--to register; a key-- That winds through secret wards Are well assigned to Memory By allegoric Bards. As aptly, also, might be given A Pencil to her hand; That, softening objects, sometimes even Outstrips the heart's demand; That smooths foregone distress, the lines Of lingering care subdues, Long-vanished happiness refines, And clothes in brighter hues; Yet, like a tool of Fancy, works Those Spectres to dilate That startle Conscience, as she lurks Within her lonely seat. Oh! that our lives, which flee so fast, In purity were such, That not an image of the past Should fear that pencil's touch! Retirement then might hourly look Upon a soothing scene, Age steal to his allotted nook Contented and serene; With heart as calm as lakes that sleep, In frosty moonlight glistening; Or mountain rivers, where they creep Along a channel smooth and deep, To their own far-off murmurs listening.
👀Impressions
The memory of a fabulous trip to Rome with my daughter a few years ago!
If you would like to connect with me, find out more about the Enneagram and yourself, and how it can transform you and your life, I would be happy to take the time for a speed coaching call that you can reserve right here go to my website or simply hit reply and get in touch with me directly.
Thank you for reading and if you enjoy it, share it, leave a ❤️, or a comment. Wishing you a wonderful day!
Yours
Tanja 🤗