Heroes Not Zombies

When France went into lockdown the first time in this pandemic I decided to share one of my photos, and write some reflections on it, every single day. My idea was to send some positive waves out into the world. I wanted to spread some beauty, some awe, some wonder, some love. And I wanted to provide some inspiration, some stimuli to reflection as we all try to work out what on earth is going on, and how might we collectively, and individually, respond to it.

I had no idea that I would still be writing and publishing these posts by the time December would be drawing to a close. I wrote the first of this series on March 17th……that’s just over 280 days ago, and I haven’t missed a single day.

As we move towards the end of any year we approach a threshold. January, after all, is named after “Janus”, who has one face looking backwards and one looking forwards. It’s a time when we traditionally begin to think about “New Year resolutions”. It’s a time when newspapers, magazines and TV shows do a “Review of the Year”, producing dozens of “Best of 2020” lists. So, in the midst of all that, I came across two photos which I took earlier in the year…..both of them are paths.

The first path is the one at the top of this post. Isn’t it beautiful? This is one of my most favourite kinds of path….through a forest, or, at very least, tree-lined. This particular one is a tree-lined path connecting the remains of a Roman amphitheatre to an extensive Baths complex and the outline of a temple. I wrote about this place the other day, highlighting what was obviously important to people in those times – culture, health and spirituality. Compared to those magnificent structures this path seems kind of humble but I love it all the same. It inspires me to reflect on the whole concept of a path – because I think the paths we walk are probably more important than the goals we make. You might think, well, doesn’t every path lead to a destination? Aren’t those destinations “goals”? OK, I don’t want to divert off my main thought here. My point is that as we come to the end of 2020 and start into 2021, which paths do we want to take? Do the paths exist already? Or do we have to lay some new ones?

The second path is inside the old Roman bath complex –

Look at these stones! Look how worn they are! Can you imagine how many people walked along this narrow passageway between two of the bath houses? Almost 2000 years ago? It’s been a long, long time since the Romans lived in this part of the world, and I know that with the excavation and opening of the site to the Public that many others will have trod this same path recently, but isn’t it astonishing how long a path can exist?

This second path made me wonder about our human tendency to do what other people are doing. We are created as highly social creatures and it’s not a bad thing to learn from others, to share experiences with others, even to mimic or echo others. But too much of that tendency can obliterate individuality and turn us into “zombies” unconsciously responding to signals and stimuli set by others. This pandemic with its repeated lockdowns and its long drawn out “social distancing” has, at least, shone a light on that. It’s showing us what we’ve been blinding following, what we’ve tolerated, and maybe even, I’d suggest, made us start to wonder how we got into this mess in the first place – in other words if we can find and understand the paths we’ve taken to end up here, maybe we can choose different paths, create more, and better ones, to take us forward.

Well, these are the things I’m going to be reflecting on over the next few weeks. I’m reaffirming my commitment to continue created these little posts every day until this pandemic is over. But I’m also ready to make some new paths too………..

……..and here’s my wish for you – that you create your own unique paths as you walk into 2021, that you create them yourself, and that you create them with those whom you love.

Another world is possible.