Irish Examiner view: Small steps towards a renewal

A penpal initiative in nursing homes has meant that hundreds of letters have been exchanged and new friendships created.

The wretched pandemic has brought many difficulties, some beyond anything we might have anticipated outside of wartime. Economic, social, and personal challenges are all too real, especially if they are needlessly exacerbated by our self-inflicted — and, amazingly, tolerated — shortcomings.

Tens of thousands of individuals, couples, or small business people gallantly trying to work or teach at home are being grievously undermined by broadband shortcomings every day. They are but one drowning cohort cast adrift on stormy seas. Their position may not be as perilous, or as trying and unacceptable, as that of those working in crowded health settings who still await a reassuring vaccine but their frustration and anger, vulnerability too, are justified. Those exposures are equally unsustainable and demand intervention at the highest levels.

Nevertheless, the pandemic has had some positive impact — even though those impacts are more a reminder of old reassurances than revelations of newly-discovered comforts.

One is that the lockdown has opened many people’s eyes to the beauty and richness of the animals and plant life in their immediate vicinity. Social media platforms are alive with the great new joy and curiosity of those who, confined by lockdown, have discovered how very rich and engaging the birdlife in an urban garden can be. That birdlife, and the plants those birds depend on, will become more and more active as spring approaches. Renewal, in perceptions and actuality, approaches from a least expected quarter.

What a wonderful, unexpected legacy of this pandemic it might be if this newfound passion led those enthralled by a starling or a goldfinch at a bird feeder, or fox cubs under a garden shed, to a more proactive interest in our environment and the forces that threaten its stability. Such an acorn-to-oak-tree strengthening would be as welcome as it is important. What a positive, unintended legacy of this ordeal that would be. That is not the only unexpected reminder of what we have and what we can do to counter Covid-19s ravages.

Small gestures make a big impact

Old skills have been put to work to build new friendships. A penpal initiative in nursing homes has meant that hundreds of letters have been exchanged and new friendships created. Launched just three months ago, the programme is intended to connect hundreds of people to nursing home residents who may be experiencing loneliness or isolation because normal visiting is just not possible. That programme is a reminder, too, that the partners those residents left alone in the family home are, or at least could be, experiencing a new kind of harsh isolation and loneliness. In these circumstances, the smallest gesture can make the biggest difference.

As EU and British difficulties over vaccine contracts challenge relationships, especially on this island, and as Prof Philip Nolan warns that we should not be “disheartened or distracted” by any rise in cases in the coming days —a 10% rise is anticipated as testing resumes — these modest comforts have a value beyond their impact. They are, along with isolation and respecting the guidelines just some of the reasons it is possible to begin to hope that an end is in sight.