The A-Z blogging challenge is quite straightforward, blog everyday in April, except Sundays, with subjects that follow the alphabet. It’s all a bit of fun. My subject is ‘A month in lock down’.
F is for friendship. Having friends and being a friend is proving to be very important during this difficult time. Keeping in touch, although not face to face, has never been easier thanks to a plethora of online tools. When once a phone call would do now we can talk to each other by video, which at least gives you some sense of being together. So far I have used Google Hangouts, Whereby, Teams, Zoom and What’sApp yet there are many more available, perhaps there are too many of them. Everyone has their go to app.
I have made an effort to keep in touch with my friends more often than I might have done in more normal times and they are doing the same with me. Even a quick chat can make you feel less on your own, while an online lunch or coffee break can get close to the real thing. I haven’t, as yet, got involved in anything such as an online pub quiz or House Party but there is time yet.
I have also noticed how desperate others are for conversation. If I am in the front garden, pottering about and a neighbour passes it turns onto a lengthy chat, at a respectful distance of course. We all crave social contact.
Oddly, I am also including my family in my discussion of friendship. I am at home with my wife and so have company, while my daughters, siblings and mother live elsewhere. I have been in contact with them more often than before the pandemic, with regular online chats and we have agreed that it would be nice to keep these things going.
Sometimes it takes a crisis for you to realise what you have all along.
Stay safe.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 