People

The current situation is bringing out the best and the worst people.   I've been trying not to read too many articles, or watch too many stories, because it's playing havoc with my emotions.   I have been drawn in to some though.

The "worst" includes self entitled s. Those who are ignoring the lockdown,  or who are being pedantic and shitty to Police (like that annoying b*tch who was "mentally exercising" for 2 hours by the river and thought herself so effing clever for recording her conversation with the incredibly patient policeman. );  and the criminal s who are doing things like mugging an 80 year old lady as she walked to the local newsagent, pushing her to the ground.

I was never a believer in capital punishment,  but these people.....   It gets me so enraged.  I know it's not helpful, and I know  it's pointless getting so wound up, but I just can't help it.  I get so angry that I am reminded of the compulsory Two Minutes Hate in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four.

On the other side, there is the heartwarming - a few tales of people who have recovered from the virus, like the 106 year old lady; tales of small (or large) kindnesses; 

And the tugging at the heartstrings: like the elderly couple dying side by side in hospital, holding hands;   the young baby, infected at just a few months old;  husbands, sons brothers, fathers, mothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts.... so many stories. 

The practical, like the people who set up the NHS Scrubs facebook group and got hundreds of people sewing scrubs for the NHS;    the Rainbow Trail;  and so on

The heartwarming, like the video of the bin men dressed as Village People and emptying the bins to the sound of YMCA;  to postmen (including ours) who were doing their rounds in fancy dress;   young kids singing for the street;    the staff at the hospital cheering Boris as he left ICU;

And then the uplifting.  Like Tom Moore, the 99 year old chap who wanted to do 100 laps of his garden before his hundredth birthday, and wanted to raise £1000 for the NHS.  His total is now at £7million,  a symptom perhaps of people wanting to do something and his effort being a focal point.

I cry easily at the moment, sometimes with sadness or despair, and sometimes  with happiness.