Dear LPG,

I think that by the time we all get to the other end of self-isolation, it will have had many revealing effects on each of the people it has touched and, because it has now been a part of so many of our lives, wherever we live and whatever our lifestyles, we will all be looking at the world through perceptive glasses with very different tints than the ones we were waring when it all started.

It seems that, in spite of all the many telephone calls I have made and received, I have been living with my own personal company for so very long now, although when I look back realistically, only a month has passed.  

Before all this, the one thing that my friends and I found through our many group chats is that life has changed over the years and retirement has left us with time on our hands to do, think and look at life in what we then perceived as new ways.  Until the period of lock down so many of us have been so used to going out and meeting our friends.   Now I look back I cannot help but notice how my friends and I spent so much of our time observing the people around us and using them as subjects of conversation to amuse, though I hope not in a vindictive way.  We would notice all the little things that the people around us would do and often use our observations to colour our perceptions of those people. 

But, in spite of the telephone calls to friends, this period of self-isolation has also become a period of self-assessment for me, and I suspect for many others now.  Those people we used to watch and pass comment on are suddenly not available for observation, and I find myself taking a good look at the only person that I really can see at the moment.

That person is myself and I find that I have many questions about the person I am now and who I have been over the past few years.   I look really different when I take a good critical look at me and if nothing else I have formulated a few plans on the me I want to go back out into the big wide world once we are all allowed the key to release us from this period of national lock down. 

It makes you think…

NI, Crofton Park