“IT'S LIFE, JIM, BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT.”

Lionel Beck – March 2022

Apparently, in the Star Trek series, Mr Spock never actually spoke these words; the closest approximation to them is “No life as we know it”. So, since my title quotation is fictional in at least two senses I feel confident in appropriating it, and re-wording it to read “It’s life, Jim, but not as we used to know it” as the title of this essay, and I’m suggesting it accurately describes our own lives since the pivotal year of 2019.

For my generation in Britain there are phases in our lives that are indelibly written into our memories:

•      The Second World War
•      Wartime and Post-War food rationing
•      The 1947 deep freeze
•      The 1950s-60s ‘Cold War’ threat of mutual annihilation (including the Cuban Missile Crisis)
•       The 1963 deep freeze
•       The 1982 spat with Argentina over the Falklands
•       The fall of the ‘Berlin Wall’ in 1989 with the accompanying collapse of Communism, the USSR and its replacement by the Russian Federation. 
•        The 2001 destruction of the World Trade Centre ‘Twin Towers’ by Islamic terrorists
•       The rise of Islamic terrorism and mass murder by bombing atrocities in our cities

So now it turns out (looking at the above list) that the “life we used to know” was actually fraught with difficulties, discomfort, and downright fear. So then I now come to:

•     2019-2022 – Covid-19 Pandemic, then the Russian invasion of Ukraine ..

.. and the title of this essay suddenly seems inappropriate, because it appears that this IS “Life as we used to know it”!

On the other hand, we did actually enjoy a period of relative peace accompanied by a general increase in living standards over the past 25 years or so. We have become accustomed to it. Which is why I originally chose the title, because 2019 seemed to be a tipping point, throwing us into a despair that is in marked contrast to the life we had more recently enjoyed. So it seems that life in the long-term is journeys through tranquil country lanes interspersed with enforced rides on a roller-coaster wearing a blindfold.

From 2019 onward we’ve had to suffer lock-downs, face coverings, social distancing, interrupted education, no visits to theatres and cinemas, highly-controlled and limited visits to restaurants and pubs, cancelled sporting fixtures, anti-vaccination conspiracy theories, plus a generous helping of fear, general anxiety, depression and other manifestations of mental illness. Then, just as we thought we were recovering from the ravages of Corona Virus and getting back to ‘normal’, a delusional, deranged, power-mad dictator in the Kremlin unleashed a totally unjustified invasion of Ukraine because Ukraine had the audacity to exercise its sovereign right to think about membership of both the EU and NATO.

The world unleashed its disapproval of President Putin, and imposed harsh sanctions upon its financial systems, Russian individuals of interest and their properties, the provision of armaments to Ukraine, and reduced dependence upon Russian oil and gas.

None of this can be done without also hurting ourselves to some extent, and so what we have to look forward to now, after more than two years of Covid restrictions, is a kind of War-time economy for the foreseeable future. Food, goods and services are already in short supply through the (predictable) consequences of leaving the EU, fuel prices are going through the roof, and so we are moving even further into the darkest recesses of the forest instead of coming out of the trees and into the sunshine. (I seem to have switched metaphors here. I should have said, we’ve been thrown back on to the roller coaster wearing a blindfold.)

What with the fear, pain and deaths caused by a new virus, and the atrocities being visited upon hospitals and residential areas in Ukraine, people who believe in God must surely be asking themselves how exactly is He showing his boundless love of mankind right now? (And, as a Humanist, I would add – or at any time in history, come to that).

It is difficult but important to get something positive out of all this, and come out the other side in the same way as we’ve managed to do with all the other vicissitudes throughout the periods I’ve mentioned above. For example, during the anxiety-laden Covid Lockdown periods (especially the first serious one), we found the permitted 1-hour per day exercise periods outside to be beneficial, because not only did we have the unusual pleasure of walking in the middle of main roads, we learned new courtesies to others as we bid them “Good Morning or Good Afternoon” or “Thank you”, by way of compensation for giving them a seriously-wide berth as we passed them on our walks (fortunately being able walk into the road in order to do so!)

We also appreciated the utter peace caused by the absence of traffic, so we could actually hear birdsong. We learned (we shouldn’t have had to) how to look after and care for our neighbours, and indeed other people we didn’t even know, delivering meals to them, and checking they were managing OK.

I hope that we can rediscover pleasure of visiting our High Streets and Shopping Centres, because if we don’t, the already diminishing number of thriving shops, pubs and restaurants, since decimated by Covid restrictions will continue to disappear because we have become a nation of online shoppers through necessity. It’s almost a habit now. If we need something we don’t even think about going out to find it physically. No, it’s straight on to the computer, find what we want – click – debit/credit card number – click – and a few days later there’s a courier on your doorstep.

As we now appear to be moving into a ‘wartime economy’ (thanks to the need for sanctions on Russia, with retaliations, in particular regarding oil and gas) perhaps one important positive mind-set would be to learn the important difference between what we want and what we need.

I want a new car, but I don’t need one. There’s nothing wrong with the car I already own. I want a new suit, but I don’t need one. I already have three perfectly good suits. I want another European River Cruise, but I don’t need one. I can have three or four holiday breaks in the UK for less than the price of the river cruise. I want to drive into the next town, and I want to drive to Scarborough or Whitby for a bit of sea air, but I don’t need to. I can walk to my next town and I can get a bus to Scarborough or Whitby (especially as I have an old git’s free bus pass!)

We can make choices to make our lives easier or less expensive, and whilst we are doing that we should remember that however much we care to moan about whatever dire situation we believe ourselves to be in, it is NOTHING, it is ZILCH, compared to the plight of the millions of Ukrainian refugees fleeing from President Putin’s atrocities.

Above all, we should endeavour to treat people as we wish them to treat us, care for those less fortunate, forgive those who we think fall short of our own exacting standards; do a bit more loving and a bit less hating.

That should be LIFE AS WE KNOW IT. "To boldly go where no man has gone before" .. that is to say, stop worrying about Split Infinitives, hold on tight for the roller-coaster ride and look forward to when you can get off.

I'll end with a story I found on Facebook .. A man in Moscow goes into the newsagent's every morning, buys his newspaper, looks at the front page then throws it into the bin. He does this every day for a week until the shopkeeper asks him why he keeps on doing that. The man replies, "I'm just checking the Obituaries." "But", says the shopkeeper, "The Obituaries are always on the inside pages, never the front page." The man replies, "Believe me, the one I'm looking for WILL be on the front page!"

Keep smiling.😎