Coronavirus: The Humans of Earth

As the world slowly grinds to a halt due to the virus it has given many of us time to reflect, not only on our personal lives and circumstances, but also as to the state of our world in general. For some it has focussed attention on the bigger questions in life like our purpose on this earth, where we, as individuals fit in, and also as societies, as to how we affect the planet. Do we take more out than we put in? Could we, should we, do more? This virus has proven to be a great leveller with neither land boundaries nor social standing being barriers to the voracious spread of the disease. I find myself checking the fatalities of each country and weighing up as to why the recorded cases in some countries are down or why there's a bigger percentage of deaths per population in one country than another. But are these individual national figures so important? We are all one species. The virus is attacking our species, not the populations of our respective countries. I think, as a species, we should be working together, and as one. There are great minds at work throughout the world and these great minds could harness this situation to help bring the whole world together, not only to defeat the Coronavirus but also in the interests of World peace, social welfare and environmental issues. As my old Dad used to say: 'Always try to turn a bad situation into a good one.'

I often think of how a sophisticated Alien race would view the human species if they paid a spot visit, just to check on how us locals were doing. We slaughter each other in wars, murders and through neglect. We kill live animals to eat them (guilty here, I don't kill them directly but contribute to this by consuming them! I hold my hands up, some are very tasty indeed!). We neglect vast areas of society giving rise to homelessness, drug and alcohol addictions, child abuse and crime. Some of the human population eat well, live in comfortable, warm homes and enjoy healthy, diverse lifestyles, whilst others have no food, water or shelter with each passing day being a struggle for survival, some in daily fear of being slaughtered by brutal and aggressive regimes. We spend billions and billions on weapons of mass destruction designed to obliterate ourselves should some of us step out of line. We regard this whole beautiful and precious planet as a resource, ripe for exploitation just to feed our insatiable greed for more and more. The Humans of Earth are slowly killing the planet that sustains our very life. How very sophisticated. No wonder we can never get good footage of an alien spaceship 'cos the feckers don't stay long enough, one look and they're off! Unfortunately, I fear that whilst we continue to allow the balance of power on this earth to lie with the minute few who control finance, oil and other vast industries, manipulating naive governments as they operate, then things will remain as they are. No groundbreaking images of Alien spaceships, after all, which self appreciating Alien race would desire an association with such a barbaric, self-destructive species as The Humans of Earth?

Anyway, that's the serious stuff pondered. What about our domestic situations? Stuck at home watching the daily fatality figures rise throughout the world. Just my luck that we'd just started renovating the house when we were struck down, I haven't grafted as hard for years! Wallpaper stripping, painting, paper hanging, tile removal etc etc. Wife working from home, kids in their rooms doing homework (or so they claim!!). No sports or football. Tripping over and cursing the cats, (four of 'em, plus a number of strays and neighbours' cats that use our house for social gatherings. Here they can meet up, chill out and relax, get free food and utilise the ample shitting zone in our back garden!). It's a totally different way of living.

My own social standing in the house drops a few notches with each passing year. Already well below cats and visitors, I've now dropped below the community of stick insects we have which live in a tank on the window ledge at the top of the stairs. And I thought the cats were a bunch of mercenary freeloaders!! At least they move from suntrap to suntrap and lick their arses from time to time. These brittle little feckers do nowt for days on end but they still get their cleaning done for 'em and get fed and watered, with their every need catered for. They have tiny little black eyes and I just know that when I pipe in at them they're looking back at me, smirking and thinking, 'Go on, go and get yer wallpapering done, Sucker!'. Pampered little bastards! What is the world coming to? At least I'm still above the woodlice in the pecking order! ... Just ... for now.

Anyway, on a positive note I should be announcing the release of 'Lonely Ballerina' imminently, so I'll thank you all now for your continued support. It's been a long and rocky road, but got there in the end after nearly four years. Not bad for a jumped up ex-roofer with a placing on the social standing index sandwiched between a woodlice and a stick insect.

Stay safe guys. See Y'all on the other side.