28 May 2020
Social Distancing in Cumbria
Week 10
by Vic Leader
This week included the third public holiday weekend in Lockdown, which has been eased. We are allowed to travel but subject to Social Distancing and to limited interaction with people with whom we have not been in Lockdown. An important factor for me is that such contact is with people I know have themselves been Locked Down and unlikely to have the virus.
The real emphasis now is to contain the amount of re-infection, the R number. So long as, collectively, we each infect less than one other, the virus will die. Above and we refuel the infection. That way each community, from family to village to town to city and hence to country manages the infection down.
Personally, on this basis, I have met at a social distance (2 metres) a friend I’ve not seen for 3 months or more; also an in-law couple. We have been able to walk and talk at that safe distance. Such a simple pleasure. My wife and I have enjoyed our mutual company and are more than able to express a range of views, not always shared, and we have spoken remotely to many about much in that period. But to return to hearing the views of others, in person, their Lockdown experiences and how they assess the wider information we have received. So refreshing.
This was progress. Spoiled, however, by news of an apparent new, earlier, senior personnel breach of the former Lockdown rules, which in turn has led to a political, media and public bun fight. Just the sort of distraction we didn’t need. This is a critical moment; the transition toward some new normality will need our collective attention as much as the Lockdown itself. I don’t comment on matters for which I don’t have the facts. I can only hope we can get past it.
I am thinking more and more about leadership. Much misunderstood, I think. We need many leaders at many levels in every activity that forms part of society. Leadership is not a permanent status. Leaders come and go. Ideally they come and go as necessary. When the task they are leading is achieved, a new leader, sometimes just a new task, should be identified. We need leadership now. Leadership involves mutual respect, trust, and confidence. A leader needs a vision; followers confidence.
Henry Kissinger defined leadership: “The task of a Leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been”. Look up the full quote on Google. We are all travelling from where we are to where we have not been because the world is not static; aspects are changing all the time. Never was that truer than at this very moment.
This pandemic has rekindled the sense of community. The majority have played their part. A non-conforming minority will always exist. There will be many events with the potential to divide us and I have to hope that we can resist, stay together.
Stay strong my friends, keep thinking, stay well.
