‘Released from the cocoon’
From 8 am today, golf has been played in St Andrews for the first time in over a couple of months. You may be wondering if I have given up my usual Friday programme for a game on the links. What – and forgo the Service Directors Group meeting at 9.30 am? No, I have shown unusual patience and will not be playing on the first possible day. But I confess I have booked 8.20 am on the Old Course tomorrow…
Some people have found the loss of golf particularly hard to bear, but have shown wonderful ingenuity in maintaining their hobby. There are drawing-rooms which have become practice greens, and gardens given over to chipping. Here is an example spotted on this morning’s walk:
It’s not only golf which is opening up today in Scotland. Tennis, bowls and fishing are all now possible. We can meet others, outside, under certain conditions. Details of these Phase 1 changes are on the Scottish Government website. And garden centres can re-open. Perhaps these medieval tulips on the Cathedral grounds wall will inspire contemporary gardeners.
I’m conscious that not everybody is itching to return to normal life. Students and staff have shared with me their anxieties about leaving lockdown. They fear catching the virus. They fear the awkwardness of social distancing in the office, the library, the lab and the lecture-room. They are worried about being back in a work-place with people and situations which have been easier due to working from home. They are fearful that we will quickly lose something of what has been a blessing (to some) in these times – quiet, birdsong, a household together, the lack of pressure to be busy.
Perhaps we could learn something from our friends in Ireland. In Britain we have come to use the term shielding, to mean protecting the most vulnerable. But that term could imply that when the shield is lifted we immediately become unprotected, and at risk of attack from all sides. In Ireland, the equivalent term is cocooned. My wife’s aunt has been cocooning. When a cocoon is no longer necessary, a beautiful butterfly emerges. If we think of our society as being cocooned, could we not see today less as the rather scary lifting of a shield, but rather, the first emergence of some into a new, strange but good world?
Just a few thoughts – and I confess I may not feel that way when taking four to get out of the Shell bunker on the 7th hole tomorrow.
Yours,
Donald.