I’ve been reminded that even for those of us who get off lightly, our current situation – lockdown in response to Covid-19 – is going to be a slog.
A marathon is different in kind from a sprint, and an involuntary slog of indeterminate length is different in kind again.
Sprints – single events, urgent work, tight deadlines, sudden crises – dominate our attention to the extent that a slog like this one seems exceptional, but in fact most of the important things in our lives are long-term slogs in conditions of great uncertainty: building careers; staying healthy; running the teams and organisations that focus so intently on our short term projects; our collective journeys as families and communities.
It would be silly to be grateful for a pandemic, but perhaps we should be grateful for the spotlight it shines on the things that are most important to us, and find ways to keep our priorities in focus at times when we live with fewer constraints.