It’s just over 3 years since Covid-19 and the ensuing lockdowns gripped the UK. And it has finally caught me. I had to miss my old boss’s birthday party when I took a lateral flow test after developing a mild sore throat…
We’re all quite blase now, and maybe rightly so…getting on with our lives and accepting the covid risk. I’m writing from the confines of my bedroom as I isolate myself to try and protect my clinically vulnerable husband.
This covid blip has reminded me to be grateful that I didn’t catch it when it was far more virulent; my immune system has likely been significantly bolstered by the 3 vaccines I’ve had (I decided not to have any more as I really don’t like taking medicines/drugs); it also reminded me that I think we went into a kind of ‘war time’ mode over the first 2 years – people helping each other and husband and I (and eventually other volunteers) making and selling face masks for a local dementia charity; making friends with a local boutique so they could sell our masks when the charity’s cafe was not open. I don’t miss lockdown, but I think I saw more of my local friends in their gardens then, than I do now!
If I didn’t have a test kit, there’s no doubt I would have passed this off as a regular cold. Which reminds me, we have never managed to obliterate any cold or flu virus…they just change slightly and re-infect our (now primed) immune systems…and there will probably come a time when saying you have covid will cause no more shuddering than complaining about a runny nose.
Trusting and naturally bolstering our immune systems has to be the way. I have no answers and no scientific studies to prove that unnatural, highly processed foods, packaged in water-polluting plastics means the pollutants are building themselves into our bodies and interfering with the effectiveness of our immune systems. If we let them. Gene-edited (GE) food will now be streaming into the UK now that we are outside of the protection of the EU. My ‘science is God’ brother-in-law thinks this is marvellous – as it simply speeds up the selective breeding process that mankind has done for thousands of years…and he says many more people could be fed. Can’t say I trust it myself…follow the money…many of the larger organisations producing our food are not interested in our health. In any case I’m pretty sure there is enough food…it’s just not well distributed and much first-world food goes to waste.
Whilst serving in the cafe a few days ago, 2 young lads (aged 10?) came up to the counter and asked if the organic cans of fizzy lemonade they wanted contained alcohol. I asked if they wanted something with alcohol in it?… because unfortunately we don’t sell alcoholic drinks and in any case, we couldn’t serve them to under-18s. They then went on to deliberate the healthiness of some of the snacks we had on offer before making their selection. Quite a few of the younger folk I know are mending(!) their clothes or buying them from charity shops. I’m hopeful of a developing groundswell of people saying no, making good choices and taking control of their own health and theirs and the planet’s well being (one and the same thing).
Check this 10 minute TED talk where a guerilla gardener takes control of his s**t…I mean food:
jx
Ain't we got it made? 