Goodbye Jonathan

I was up at 6am.

I make coffee. I read The Guardian. The need for physical distancing means that space in our towns and cities must be shared in new ways.

There is hope that the huge reduction in motor traffic caused by the virus will not be completely reversed. Already, cities including Milan and New York have announced ambitious plans to reconfigure roads in such a way as to make more space for cyclists and pedestrians.

Improving air quality is one motive, particularly in cities, not least because pollution is thought to be a contributor to Covid-19 deaths. Encouraging people to walk and cycle is another. Fitter, less overweight people are less at risk from all sorts of diseases, particularly respiratory ones.

The chance to move around more freely again is something to be looked forward to, especially for those who are separated from loved ones.

I signed into work at 7.30am.

I said good bye to my favourite gay senior associate, Jonathan Bibe. Cute name. Cute face. If he was American, he would have been Chip, or Biff, with his cute, open, boyish face, always ready to break into a smile. It’s a shame he was leaving. I felt sad when I saw he was going. I mean, not that I have a lot to do with him, but we’d been on the same gay group and he was always nice. I think I spoke to him on the phone, more than anything else, as I did at the end. I remember his nice voice.

“I just called to say goodbye,” said Jonathan.

“Oh. Yes,” I tried not to sound too surprised. “Today is the day, is it?”

“Nah, it’s Friday, but I’m going to be really busy for the next few days and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity.”

“Sorry to see you go,” I said.

“Sorry, I can’t say good bye in person.”

“It’s the times we live in.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” he said. “Anyway, nice working with you, such as we did.”

“I’ll miss seeing you at the lift in the mornings.”

“Yeah, me too,” he said. “Always nice to see a smiling face.”

“And you,” I said.

“Anyway, perhaps another time, in another place, at another law firm.”

“Hopefully,” I said.

Then he hung up.

Then I didn’t have much to do for the rest of the day.

I read the Australian Human Rights Commission

When the COVID-19 pandemic spread to this big island of ours, our leaders made a momentous decision: they decided to save as many human lives as possible.

This was the right decision. It shows we as a country care about human life above all else. But now we face an even harder question: how to save lives while preventing economic collapse and staying true to our democratic values?

In order to save lives, we are making other painful sacrifices. People are losing their jobs. There is real suffering behind closed doors for many elderly people, people with disability, victims of domestic violence and people experiencing homelessness. 

Even those of us who are relatively lucky are adjusting to new restrictions on our freedoms. We’re working from home, we’re home schooling our kids, and living in isolation from the people and activities we love.

Australia now has strict rules about when we can and can’t go out, what we can do and how many people we can see in person. There’s strong community support for these restrictions. We can see how those rules keep us safe from COVID-19.

We are all in this together and most people have willingly made these sacrifices for the greater good of our whole community.

But there’s also a hidden risk. Our willingness to accept sacrifice can leave us vulnerable to accepting greater restrictions on our freedom than are really needed to keep us safe.

I rewrote my lockdown novel draft, for the rest of the day, pretty much.

Josh has a couple of boyfriends, but he has a straight mate Ben all through his relationships. In between Josh’s relationships, Josh and Ben get out of it on occasions and fool about sexually.

4.30pm. We took Buddy and Bruno to the Carlton Gardens. It was quite a nice day. The sun was shining. Around the perimeter pathway and then home. You know, I don’t hate the lock down, in fact, with so few people in which to come in contact… well… um… what’s not to like.

We ate Japanese curry for dinner.