How Are You Coping ?

FRIDAY 27th March 2020

How are you coping in this present situation ?  How many days is it since Britain went into the present lock down ? You know I am not sure: two, three, four days ? Are you coping ? I am not sure if I am.

I have gone from working 12+ hours a day to nothing. Last night I slept for eleven hours, when was the last time I slept for that long ?  Probably when I was a small baby.

I am a councillor but the council is closed down. I am chairman of the local police community forum but the police as too busy with operations to be concerned with meetings.  All of my community projects have closed. Music is at the centre of my life but now the studio is closed for the duration so The Geriatric DJ is on a sabbatical.  All I have left is my writing, writing to help maintain my sanity.

I boast that I am not a wimp so David aka The Geriatric DJ aka Max Robinson stop being a wimp ! Stop feeling sorry for yourself !  It was in December 2016 that I first started writing a blog, this is my 999th edition. Originally my intention was to collect something like 100 editions then publish it as The Diary Of A Silly Old Man. That never happened. Perhaps when we come out of this global crisis I may publish my current blog writing under the title ESCAPE FROM ARMAGEDDON. Perhaps. The important thing is that by writing a page each day it will help preserve my sanity. Perhaps as I publish it each day it will help others to preserve their sanity. It may even inspire some to write their own blogs.

So........................

The UK death toll now stands at 578, it went up from 475 yesterday. Within that number is the first person to die in prison. He was an 84 year old. For goodness sake what is an 84 year old doing in prison ?  OK, his identity has not been released so he could be a major criminal serving an extended sentence or could he be someone who has popped in and out of gaol all his life. Of all the broken systems in pre-virus society the justice system with a 85% re-offending rate this has to be the biggest failure.

Our Saturday lunch for the homeless rough-sleepers has been forced to close I keep wondering about my friends: Richard, Barry and so many others who had nothing more than a sleeping bag on the floor for their homes. Where are they now ?  How are they coping ?  Milton Keynes Council could not help them in normal times so what chance do they have  now ?  The more vulnerable you were the less help was available. The council's homeless prevention team should be re-named homeless encouragement and adult social care renamed adult social couldn't care less.

We used to live in a society where FAILURE was the norm.  I trust we do not return to that when this is all over, wouldn't it be great if society adopted the motto FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION. 

I don't do religion, god and all that stuff, but I do believe in Destiny, I have had Madam Destiny tap me on my shoulder so many times in my life. Several of my books feature destiny steering the reader through the plot. What do you think ?  Has Destiny put Boris Johnson in charge of our nation ?  Isn't he doing a great job ?  Just imagine where we would be if Jeremy Corbyn had won last November's general election or that gobby cow who was the short-lived leader of the Liberal Democratic Party !  Rishi Sunak, isn't he doing a good job ?  He was only thrown into the job a few weeks ago, Did you know he is an Amazon Author ?  yes, he is.

He is in good company, I am an Amazon Author. I have fifteen titles currently available.  I write for pleasure, not to make money although before this crisis I was trying hard to promote my books in order to fund our projects working with vulnerable people. Promoting my books is also on hold for the duration of the crisis. That said I sold 17 yesterday, my best day this year was 19th March with 124. 

Primarily I write for personal pleasure, if someone reads what I have written then that is a bonus, if they enjoy what I have written then that is a double bonus. I have been writing since I was a teenager. In recent years there has been a motive within my writing, to encourage others to write. If what I write could inspire one person to write then that would be a bigger achievement than selling one thousand of my own books.

During World War II so many soldiers serving in the trenches wrote diaries and poems. You rereading this 999th edition of my blog, could I invite you to write a diary or blog and share how you are coping in this global pandemic, something the like of which the world has never before experienced ?  World War One ended one hundred and two years ago yet those writings from the trenches are still read today. Go on, start writing today. I am looking to my writing to help preserve my sanity and who knows, what I have written here and what you write today may be read in one hundred and two years time as history tries to imagine what we are all living through.