April saw the 56th birthday of our son Anthony, (Tony) and so my wife sent him a card with our love and best wishes. However, this year she also sent him a computerised ecard which featured jolly cartoon graphics, and musical variations on Happy Birthday. The electronic email will raise a smile, but I imagine that the card by post (snail mail) will activate his mind in other ways.
This caused me to mentally compare modern communication with traditional methods, and I wonder if the new method of transmission, itself has changed the value we writers and readers put on the words?
The pre-designed ecard was created so that a customer has only to complete a few boxes; pay an on-line fee, and press ‘Send.’ The ‘card’ itself, being untouched by human hand, exists only as an agglomeration of transitory electrical pulses, predestined to disappear a short time after being opened. But, because the message itself is ‘alive’ for so little time, I wondered if it thus becomes easy for the recipient to undervalue the feelings and thinking behind the message? Does the message. “With Love from Mum and Dad” written on a ‘snail mail’ birthday card, give a greater sense of enduring love compared to that of the instant ecard? I reckon it does.
Talking of enduring feelings during Covid19 lock-down, reminds me of the enduring value of religious texts, music, buildings and religious services. All of which are affected by a government which wisely banned gatherings of people, and advised leaders of the community and industry to find appropriate ways of making a two metre distance rule effective. Shops and businesses were quick off the mark, as were NHS workers if not their managers. Staff managed to make beds and medical resources available with their swift response. Mind you, sending elderly sick folk into Care Homes was not the best decision they made. Pubs, Cafes and Restaurants, did not have enough two metre spaces and closed. Churches and other religious establishments, despite having space for private prayer changed their minds a few days later and decided to lock their doors.
To my generation, banning gatherings and the two metre rule seemed sensible especially as the guidelines are changed as more data comes in. We adapt to the situation as we have adapted to change throughout our lives. We are also very adept in four of the virtues of Stoic philosophy, e.g. we value and are keen on Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance.
Not so the TV news channels. Their newscasters seem to have an obsessive fear of what ‘might’ happen tomorrow. So predictable and dire is their choice of news that I turn off after the five minute headlines. This means I miss all the negative speculation and despairing pseudo-intelligent prattle. Reporting is one thing, their incessant speculation is another.
What, I wonder, is happening in their heads as they introduce a situation as ‘unprecedented’ but then demand that a government spokesperson give them details of what is going to happen next?
In unprecedented times it is the role of Leaders to first set a course, a direction. Modellers, planners, analysts, programmers, schedulers, implementers and administrators follow. In real life, action by cleaners, labourers, growers, barbers, electricians, farmers, builders, et al, comes well ahead of news reporters who seem to indulge themselves and annoy the populace by idle speculation. In any case, it is for Historians to research and debate whether or not a leader’s direction was the appropriate one. They have much better hindsight after the event, than gossipers have at the present time.
And talking of unprecedented events, I mused on how Radio Four might have reported August 15, 1620. On that unprecedented day, a boat named Mayflower left Southampton bound for the new world. Everyone aboard knew their direction was west against prevailing winds, but none knew when they would arrive. As it was; they made landfall 66 days later, albeit not where they hoped to be.
I wonder if the radio on-board news team would have interviewed Master Christopher Jones and his crew and demanded guarantees and detailed plans in advance for every day of the journey. Would they have insisted on daily progress reports and questioned why the Coxswain’s comments yesterday were at variance with what the poop deck steward said last Wednesday. Why, they might ask, will not the first lieutenant reveal what plans there are in the event that the wind direction should shift hither and yonder, and furthermore, what contingencies are there, should a storm come in from the north-west. And, finally; “because we are running out of time,” what provisions are there for the passengers should they die or be taken prisoner by an armed Spanish warship?
Was I to have been on board the Mayflower, the people I would want around me would be competent experienced mariners not folks skilled only in using rhetorical devices to report and speculate on a decision before it had time to be fully implemented. Such people have their place, but it is not during unprecedented times.
Talking of which, a friend sent me the historical tale of a wealthy happily married man who had an exciting month long dalliance with a vivacious Italian lady from Padua. Nature took its course, but they agreed an amicable parting and that he would give her and her offspring full lifetime support. But to avoid embarrassment back home; she would send the details on a coded postcard.
In due course it arrived and was handed to him by a puzzled wife. He read it, turned white and fainted. It read: ….
Spaghetti – Spaghetti – Spaghetti.
Two with meatballs one without
Send extra sauce.
View from the Pew 