surviving lockup

John from Wadestown

Today’s news had some prisoners in a New Zealand jail complaining that they’d been locked in their two-person cells for up to 23 hours a day. I fully empathise with them. As one of the community’s vulnerable I’ve been locked in my one-person cell for 24 hours a day for six weeks now.

For the vulnerable moving from Level 4 to Level 3 has made no difference, we’re still in lock down. The Government’s
Former Science Adviser, Professor Peter Gluckman, says effect of this virtual imprisonment is resulting in mental distress and the fear of suicides. If you’re in lockdown with your wife or partner at least you have some human contact, but if alone it’s hell.

The one saving grace is video contacts; the local church has just started virtual services using Zoom software. They had 25 on screen on Sunday. Yesterday I attended a University of the 3rd Age lecture and we had over four hundred faces to watch.

This seems to portend the future where our main contact will be via screen.

If you’ve visited Disneyland you will have experienced rides where a combination of sound vision and small movements in your seat can give the illusion that you are really are flying.

If we could extend audiovisual of virtual meetings to include feelies we might be able to hold virtual hands and even have virtual kisses. I'll stop there before I get carried away.