Little Miracles

 

When you stop and think about it for a minute, ordinary life is full of magic.

I forget exactly whose quote it is [Edit: I googled, it’s Arthur C Clarke] but there is a saying that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. And I think it can be easy to forget sometimes just how lucky we are. In these difficult times of isolation and fear, those of us living in the more technologically connected parts of the globe do at least have the means to communicate at a safe distance, by phone or face to face, across thousands of miles if necessary, with our loved ones. Via the internet, we have the means to order food and clothes and necessities to be brought to us, with no more effort on our part than the click of a mouse button (though a bit more for the delivery people). We have endless supplies of entertainment in the form of books, DVDs and television, both standard and streamed. We have the world in our hands from inside our homes.

And at a more basic level – we have but to turn a tap and there is water. We have but to flick a switch and there is light. We have but to press a button and there is heat (or the hope of heat at least and the number of the repairman if it doesn’t happen!) or start a car to travel at speeds far greater than could have even been imagined a century ago. And then, of course, there is medicine. We have at least the hope of a vaccine, whether it materialises or not, and people are there and waiting who will care for us and do their best to save us if illness or injury does come.

 If you look to the past, and indeed around many parts of this world right now, these little miracles that we take for granted just aren’t there. Imagine living in the times of the Black Death or the Bubonic Plague. Trapped in their homes and villages but with no ready access to food or water, heat or light or clothing without going and finding ways to create it oneself, while not even knowing or understanding how this killer that stalked their communities was being passed around. Imagine how envious they would be of our magical existence where all these things they have to carry, find, chop, grow and make we take for granted every day.  Even in the difficulties of the current situation, I do find myself thinking – it could be worse, I could be medieval....

Mind you, thinking for a moment about the odd little world of The Disposable that I created – while I don’t have any particular desire to be chopped up and left in a ditch or have my life dictated by the storytelling of a vast unseen power, one aspect does look rather good at the moment. It might be nice to have the ordinary Realm miracle of being able to heal from all injury and suffer no illness right now. Perhaps some distant day, this world will have that miracle too.

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