Stay safe

In these unprecedented times

In these unprecedented times, I urge you to stay safe. These are new expressions that we have subconsciously developed under the pandemic rage. They are not the elbow shake or the 20-sec double happy birthday song to wash your hands. They are far more natural and less artificial than that. These have come from nowhere, language evolution caused by newly developed human behaviour. Beautiful if you ask me.

I have started to say it to people who were leaving the consultation room and to friends and family, and it was said to me when I got my take away pizza, without them knowing I was using it. I chose local pizza because I didn’t want to cripple the home stock and I thought I could support the local economy in their time of need. If they didn’t know I was using the expression, it must mean it has now reached popularity. Stay safe doesn’t just mean: 'don’t catch the virus’; it has a deeper dimension, an ulterior motive if you wish. It conveys the message of telling you to avoid being a spreader. Look after yourself, yes, but make sure you become another link in the social chain of protection, become another soldier in this invisible war.

The other expression, ‘unprecedented times’, is way more sinister. It comes in emails and it usually precedes bad news. It says that we have been forced to do this (whatever 'this' is) because these times, the ones…