Grounded as most of us are to a certain extent, we really miss meeting up with friends and family, and in that the media in general can play a significant role. On a fairly regular basis I hook up with family in Britain, New Zealand and Sweden, as well as with friends in Brazil, Canada, the USA and Russia – and I feel so much the better of it.
However, no matter how useful the social/media is, there is a lot of rubbish out there. And unkind though this may sound, people who wouldn’t otherwise have access to a platform often confidently spout poorly-expressed, garbled messages or unfounded claims. Only yesterday our local radio station was fielding questions from listeners related to the Covid-19 vaccination in Greece.
One questions staggered me: she asked whether, if she had tested positive but was asymptomatic, she needed to be vaccinated.
The irony is that there is so much information out there, yet there are so many who remain ill-informed.
On the same subject, in a closed Facebook group for British residents in Greece, someone began complaining about the authorities suspending vaccination for the 66-74 age group and skipping to the 60-65 group. There followed a string of comments from others denigrating ‘the system’.
The truth is that those in charge are working very hard, continually responding to the ongoing changes caused by the virus. In actual fact, Pfizer vaccines are currently being administered to the 75+ age group while, informed by recent research, they are currently vaccinating only the under-65 group with AstraZeneca. Relevant data is being presented widely on a regular basis. People really need to ensure they are adequately informed before entering into a public diatribe!
Friends in Moscow told us they had readings of -20oC. Just a touch extreme, but there has been a lot of snow falling recently and we have lots forecast for tonight and tomorrow.
So, given the lock-down, white-out, etc. I’ve come up with two antidotes.
1) Beauty
In our garden yesterday, spring was trying to poke its nose through.
Prunus is the first plant to offer blooms while an early daffodil makes her shy debut. I chose those two shots as, if you look closely, you can see our neighbour’s fairly recently-acquired bees, busy collecting some pollen. Not much of it or them around these days so a great opportunity before the big freeze hits.
Imagine searching out beauty professionally! That’s exactly what the Romanian photographer, Mihaela Noroc, has done in compiling her Atlas of Beauty. I hope this travels through to reach you. We’ve had quite enough division and denigration these days – let’s go for the superlative!
{Well, it seems my system has uploaded the visual link but you an access it on : theatlasofbeauty.com if anything goes wrong - it's well worth the search.}
2) Humour.
Humour is another factor that can get us through the day unharmed – or unharming! A British lady Facebooker posted something about having an English passport. This stuck in my craw all day as I paused and considered. Well, you just can’t let that go, can you? So my response had a wee edge to it: I repeated her ‘English passport’ phrase and asked if that meant we Scots had actually been granted independence. And let that be a lesson!!
Finally, this is the response of a German new dad, tired of his wife constantly checking that the baby is okay under his supervision. It’s classic. By the way, he is a graphic artist!
{This time, no success in uploading, so here's the link :
https://www.facebook.com/1282180258/posts/10219408834673202/ sorry about that :( }
Sincerely hope these links follow through and that you enjoy them.
Stay well, warm and happy!
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