VIEW FROM THE VERANDAH: The silence is defeaning

We bring you a new column by Shanee Banda inspired by isolation, lockdown and quarantine settings.

Photo by **Skitterphoto** from **Pexels**

This is the first time in a very long time that April Fool’s Day came and almost went without my having noticed. When I did realise what day it was today I had no desire for pranks. How do you joke around in a time like this?

It’s day three of the lockdown and the compliance I’ve been seeing seems to suggest that people are now taking this seriously. I don’t think that even in the middle of the night it’s this quiet. The silence is so loud and thick you could cut out a slice. I’m positive that no stay away or shutdown has ever managed to clear the streets the way this lockdown has.

You’d think that if people are home then maybe they’ll be having parties, playing loud music or something. I guess everyone understands that the reason we are home is nothing to celebrate.

What manner of people are we going to be when all of this is over though? Will we still know how to give comfort? Will we still understand what compassion is? I’m afraid that what fear is doing to us right now as a society will leave deeper scars than the actual pandemic. Having had to spend a great deal of time in isolation – will we remember what it feels like to be around people?

Home is only home when it is actually a home. For some leaving every morning at 7am is an escape. Wherever they spend the day is a refuge and when it’s time to go back if they can help it, they’ll delay just a while longer. The messages say “stay home, stay safe”. But are we all safe? Safe from Corona maybe, but what of the rest of the horrors?

Catch-22 isn’t it? Step out and you don’t know what you’ll meet out there. Stay in, and your fate is certain. They say the devil you know is better than the one you don’t. Is he really though?

Even if she were to scream who would hear her or come to her rescue? Running away could work, but where would he run to? Maybe someone could do something, but who? Perhaps it will get better. With just three days in… Will there be a light at the end of the tunnel?

Did anyone remember the homeless, the orphans, the vulnerable? Or were we too busy staying safe. Even if someone did remember, what could they have done? But if the crisis is our crisis – ours, our families’, society’s, nation’s and the whole planet’s – are there some we deemed less equal than others?

I ask but who shall answer? Who can answer? What can they say? Whatever it is that they could think of…. will it help anyone or will they just be empty words? Lip service.