This might be topical at the time of writing, but what about when its revisited? So I will give it a little context. Its April 2020 and Covid 19 is keeping us in quarantine. People are under stress from the newness and unpredictability of this situation, and all the attendant human urges bubbling up to the surface.
‘Captain Tom’ 99 year old Tom Moore raised tens of millions for the NHS to help with its Covid 19 response. He did this by completing 100 laps of his Bedfordshire garden in a limited time. Whilst 90 year old Margaret Payne is climbing her stairs to equal a mountain of 2,398ft within a month. Again to raise funds for the NHS.
All this set me thinking of a symbolic reflection of the phenomena. The symbolism in a piece of my work titled ‘The Insulated Traveller’ seemed to fit with my intuition on the matter. So I went onto express it thus;
‘Captain Tom’ and ‘great grandmother Margaret Payne’ have acted as a lens to focus an innate human need.
A need for the collective and compassion. For direction, inspiration and action.
When the least among us lead us, this need goes unfulfilled. So we seek it where we find it, and in this instance from some of our most vulnerable.