The muted low key BoJo lasted all of four days. The mood of the daily government briefings changed once you had a pantomime horse gallivanting in the middle of the two stooges. It was as if someone flicked a switch and Boris was back on full Kerfuffle & Bluster setting. What has become painfully obvious, and I do mean toe curlingly painful, is what an abysmally poor communicator he is. The lack of clarity and concision in his every utterance is outstanding. If parts of the general public remain confused about what 'social distancing' and 'voluntary isolation' actually mean, then look no further than our babbling brook of a PM.
He is incapable of constructing a simple straightforward sentence presenting the necessary bare facts, without prefacing them with a gabbled recounting of every single government initiative so far. There should be a public health warning - 'Please be aware, you are about to have several kilos of candy floss rammed down your oesophagus, resisting your gag reflex could prove difficult'. He is not what you want at a time of national crisis, but he is what we've been given.
A few weeks ago during the floods everyone was asking 'Where's Boris?.. is he in hiding?'. Now we see him everyday we know why they kept him away from the spot light...because he hogs it. There were times when I've found myself praying for a big hook to come in from one side and drag him away from the microphones. I end up shouting at the TV , starting with- 'Just tell us what we need to know' quickly progressing to Oh 'Shut UP! Shut UP!! Shut UP!!!
Whitty & Vallance continue to be the unruffled deliverers of disquieting information, with patience, kindness and precision. They have now been joined in my small pantheon of 'Thank God They Are Here' heroes by Rishi Sunak, our newly esteemed Chancellor, His presence is reassuring because he's a very clearheaded steady communicator and he sounds like he genuinely cares what happens to everyone. Plus he is trying to get to grips with organising help, surrounded by the chaos that is BoJo and a steadily worsening situation. Setting up a whole new way to administer support for the entire countries economy in a matter of days. Yes, it is all a bit of a mess timing wise, but then what do we expect, the lead in times have been non existent. This virus did not exist on many peoples radar three months ago.
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Meanwhile, in the land of Cottonwood Home, we have decided, with regret, to mothball the shop whilst the pandemic rages. Deep cleaning the shop and stocktaking on Sunday before we close. Each day has been quiet, getting quieter and our daily take has correspondingly nose dived. We also started to question being open for business, not just because financially its become pants, but because it invites people to come into a shop with us that's not advisable health wise, leaving all of us open to infection. A part of me is heartbroken to have to do this. It feels like we are abandoning a fledgling bird that may not survive our being away.
It looks like we will get a grant from the government to partially support us, which eases the financial uncertainty a little. Had the year progressed as we'd hoped, by the end of Summer we assumed it would be obvious whether the business had grown sufficiently to make continuing for another year worth a try. This is not going to happen then, even in our wildest dreams. Our landlord has halved our rent for the next three months, this and the grant pushes that moment of decision to some indefinite time ahead. Leaving the future of our business longer term with a question mark hovering over it. Whatever the circumstances are when that particular presenting moment does arrives I'm sure will almost take the decision for us. So I'm not going to put on my worry head about that now. Lets survive the pandemic first.
Running the shop and making for the shop takes up all our energy and time, so keeping our website up to date and marketing it has fallen by the wayside. One benefit of being forced to stay home will be to get on with photographing new stock etc. Having a bricks and mortar shop has refocused the nature of the things that we make, and the website needs to reflect that change. At the moment we're continuing to make new things but at some point that will cease, if only because we can't buy the materials we need as everywhere will have shut down.
Looking at the empty ransacked shelves in our supermarkets, of a country not yet in lock down, and comparing them with the full shelves in Italian supermarkets, a country that is in lock down, is dispiriting. It really reflects on how in the UK the sense of community and consideration for the needs of others has just crumbled in this crisis to be replaced by a knee jerk self-serving greedy grabby individualism. Seeing what's happened is horrifying. It is truly shameful.
I'm still reading through the book of commentaries on three chapters from Dogen's Shobogenzo. I have got stuck on the middle one, Shoaku Makusa or Refraining from Evil. Densely allusive in the way its written, it is an exploration of the concepts of good and evil and what we are really to refrain from. I'm currently on my third re-reading through of the commentary, and though I've become much clearer about the general thrust, I'm still getting the feeling that something important in what he's trying to communicate is still eluding me, as though its merely a whisker away from my grasp. But its a big whisker!
" To rely on the other is to be always unsettled"
The Suttanipata
Pretty much your standard Dharma alert. Not to emotionally over invest in people, things, environments and events in being reliable. These things may appear to be stable or present the illusion that they will always be there, but that can be unsettled in an instant, like by the emergence of an invisible virus. Be wise and stay safe.
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