Is it too soon to stop writing about coronavirus?

Sanity may lie in seizing small pleasures, says Andrew Buncombe

Spring has arrived in Seattle, even as we mourn what coronavirus has taken – and is continuing to take – from us (Reuters)

I have a question that only you can answer.

Is it too soon to think about anything else? Is it in poor taste, or does it risk stirring bad karma, to consider anything other than the contagion? Is it too soon, in short, to stop writing about coronavirus?

The dilemma is this: spring has arrived in Seattle in the most wonderful way.

In the streets near our house, cherry trees are lit lilac by their blossom. The sun is warm and beckoning. Songbirds are doing their thing.

This morning when I woke at 6.30am, the light was edging its way over the Cascade Mountains. I nipped downstairs, made tea, then headed back to bed to listen and look, determined to enjoy the quiet and keep at bay that other world.

I wanted to share all of this with you, but feel guilty not to be writing about that other stuff – the virus, the death toll, the updates from the White House, or from Downing Street or from Wuhan. All within reach with the scroll of a cellphone.

With 1.4 million infections and more than 80,000 deaths, how can time be well spent trying to describe the expression of the bird staring through our bedroom glass?

I am sure it’s not just me. You sense it in the voices of people out running or cycling or walking their dogs.

“How’s it going? Beautiful day?” They nod and smile back, but even from six feet or further, you can sense that some feel guilty to be enjoying themselves amid a crisis.

I have a theory on this. The birdsong and the sunshine will save our sanity. In dark times, we literally need the light. And those of us privileged to have such opportunities should take them and store them up.

There will come a time when the virus is beaten and the numbers flatten. Doctors and nurses will not be working back-to-back shifts, having to reuse face masks. Journalists will stop having to work out how to cover the crisis, without becoming ill themselves and adding to the problem.

The world may look a little different. It may look a lot different. Some of us may keep our jobs; others may not. For certain, the media will soon have something else to focus on – perhaps the next pandemic, or at the very least the US election in November.

In the meantime, surely it is permissible – vital, even – to recognise the dualities of our situation. That death and disease may be just a few feet from where we stand, and yet we can still enjoy small pleasures where we find them.

Stay safe.

Yours,

Andrew Buncombe

Chief US correspondent