A new world
Looking out of my window in locked-down London, the world looks much as it did a few months ago, and yet everything has changed. Even leaving the house has become a trial. Everyday interactions – a handle, a button, a handshake, a conversation – have taken on a sense of dread, tainted by the threat of infection. Confined to the house and the family, the things that once defined our routines – buying takeaway coffee, squeezing onto the train, making small talk with coworkers – are distant memories. Instead, we are cycling, Zoom-ing, home-schooling, hand-sanitizing and, most of all, dreaming. Dreaming of what’s next. The pandemic has allowed us to step off the hamster wheel for a moment, to glimpse another future. When all of this is over, what kind of a world do we want to live in?
