Daring to be different

Will we be different when we emerge from our COVID-19 cocoon?

Will we be kinder? Will we be more relaxed?

Will we be eager to party or will we have grown too accustomed to solitude?

Will we work from home more often?

Will we want less and appreciate what we have more?

Will we take better care of the environment, now that we’ve seen the world looking so clear and bright?

Will we support Australian manufacturers, knowing how scarce products can become in a crisis?

Earlier this month, the ABC obtained a confidential report prepared for the Defence Department last year, which gave a forecast of Australia’s vulnerabilities in a global crisis.

The report laid out a timeline of how Australian essential services would collapse within just three months if a crisis put a halt to global trade.

With at least 90% of Australia’s specialist medical supplies imported, the report found specialist medicines “may be exhausted within days”, with “severe repercussions for public health”.

Water treatment and sewage systems could start to fail within a week as crucial imported chemicals ran out.

And lots of other scary stuff.

It’s tempting to think that being an island means we can easily cut ourselves off from the rest of the world. But we’ve created a house of cards.

I still can’t get my head around the surreal situation we’ve found ourselves in during COVID-19. So many people are without jobs, the economy is teetering on disaster. Despite that, Australia still feels like the lucky country, as the death toll rises steadily overseas.

But fear is jostling with the gratitude. I’m scared for my future, I’m worried about the world my children will inherit.

I want to wake up and discover it’s been a bad dream.

Or I want Doctor Who to come along with a clever plan to save us all.

I am totally loving watching the first Matt Smith season of Doctor Who again with the eldest. It is glorious fun. He – and Karen Gillan as Amy Pond – are fabulous.

By escaping into happy places like Doctor Who and DD’s arms I am hopeful I can weather this storm.

Oh, and speaking of emerging from cocoons … I’m still contemplating going grey, or ash blonde … whatever my natural hair colour has become … ash blonde sounds better …

It feels like an oddly monumental decision, as one of the things that has made me feel unique my whole life is the colour of my hair. How will I cope with not being a redhead for the first time in 52 years …

Am I brave enough to try it and see? My hairdresser tried to call me yesterday to book my next appointment and I let it go to voicemail because I wasn’t sure what to say yet.

Stay tuned …

Song of the day: Steve Strange “Fade to grey”