Corona Restriction Madness

When we walk past the packed playground in our town where hundreds of kids are mingling, but the 5km travel radius doesn’t allow us to go to an empty forest park. When our son is asking why he can‘t meet with a single friend to play in our garden in the afternoon, although he has played with 20 of them in preschool all morning. Then I don’t want to try and come up with reasonable answers, because there are none. That is when I just want to escape to a secluded mountain top and  isolate from all the people making up nonsensical rules. What would be the difference to Lockdown Level 5 anyway?

What is more essential – Socks or a Kids Jacket?

When I stroll through our town, looking at all the closed shutters of the local stores. I read their posters in front stating “Buy local – Support local businesses“. With that line still ringing in my mind I go home and order all the things that are essential to me online. When I peek over to the shut-off clothes section in the supermarket to work out if knickers and socks are behind the barrier or accessible after all. I realise that I could buy socks indeed, but kids jackets – which I am actually looking for  – have been classified ‘non-essential’ by the Irish government. Hence I can only see them hanging off a clothes rail in the distance, whilst still pondering if I should just buy socks instead.

Freedom of Movement? Not without a Passport!

When my parents in Germany tell me that people are allowed to go to Mallorca on vacation, but can‘t visit their family in the next town over due to the current Corona restrictions. When I find out that the passport office in Dublin doesn’t issue any new passports during Lockdown Level 5 and that includes children’s passports. When I realise that we couldn’t even leave our one and half year old with my husband’s family in Ireland in case we had to travel for essential reasons, as they are not within our 5km travel radius and therefore haven’t seen our daughter in months. Yet another reason to withdraw to our imaginery mountain top where we won’t need a passport, neither justify our movements.

Greystones – The Home of the Cash Cow

When I drive through Greystones and Delgany and see yet another green field is getting turned into a housing estate. When I see how lovely old buildings are torn down to make space for modern, glass-fronted apartment blocks. When I see how much of its original charm the once sleepy fishing village of Greystones has already lost and that the process is still ongoing. When windy, narrow country roads are extended to cope with the daily increasing amount of traffic.

That is when I want to set off to a mountain top, far away from developers and their already pretty milked cash cow.

When I walk through the gorgeous Glen of the Downs trying to imagine what it must have been like without the constant humming noise of the traffic on the N11 running through it. When I remember our Sundays in Delgany Church with the friendly nuns who had called the attached convent their home for centuries and that is now turned into more apartments and houses. When I see another “Developing Site Sign“ towering over a lush piece of land where currently sheep are grazing, but will be replaced by construction vehicles soon.

That is when I want to escape to a mountain top, to just live there with my family in solitude.

Regression of the Civilized World

When I listen to the news and hear that mothers are not called ‘mothers’ anymore in British hospitals, but have to be referred to as ‘birthing person‘ to be politically correct. Also women are not addressed as such anymore in the Irish HSE information on cancer prevention, but were replaced by the phrase ‘anyone with a cervix’. When I hear that parents in Canada are forced by law to allow their underaged children to take puberty blockers if they wish to change to the opposite sex. Otherwise the state has the right take the children away from them. When I hear that there are people out there who can sue you for hate speech when you don‘t refer to them as “wormkind“ as they like to identify themselves. When I realise that there are now three entrances in public toilets for male, female and diverse, but the ‘diverse‘ sign is showing an alien which is meant to be less offensive than not having a third option at all.

That is when I would like to pack my bags and aim for a remote mountain top because this is not the civilized world that I want to live in anymore.

The Mountain Top is Waiting – Pack our Bags!

Maybe the Corona year has changed me and the social isolation has made me less open-minded or tolerant towards the outside world. Maybe I focussed on my family so much that I don‘t respect other opinions anymore who differ too strongly from mine. Maybe I am just getting old or have always been too conservative to handle modernity and changes. Maybe my social anxiety makes me come up with excuses why I’d prefer to live on a mountain top with only my family. Anyway, the day will come when that mountain top is going to be the only valid option. Until then we are to be found in our little sheltered garden paradise.

P.S. Help to stop the construction madness in the village of Delgany by supporting this initiative: