Life is a risk

I am old enough to remember a time before Covid. When people could fly almost anywhere in the world almost at the last minute without needing to have medical tests and filling out copious amounts of paperworks and downloading apps. I look forward to a time in the future when covid is treated like all other viral infections – something that we might get, but it is not serious and doesn't justify shutting the world down because one person coughed in the airport. We don't close the roads because one person got knocked off their bike. More people die on the roads every year than from covid.

I am old enough to remember the cold war and the imminent threat of nuclear oblivion with only a three minute warning. I remember practising our nuclear attack survival drill (hiding under the table). Now we are led to believe that another one degree temperature rise will cause the end of life on the planet as we know it. I look forward to a time in the future when people will develop some sense of perspective, risk and proportionality and not threaten to kill me because I used a plastic (non-recyclable) bag for my shopping.

I am old enough to remember a time when children grew up in stable two-parent families who stayed together foresaking all others in sickness and in health for better or worse for richer or poorer forever, without needing to use solicitors to communicate. I remember my mum always being at home after school and we didn't need to pay strangers to care for our kids. I look forward to a time in the future when the family is re-established as the best place for bringing up children at the heart of a stable community and stable society. Forever.