Well it was bound to happen. After spending weeks playing Merge Dragons or watching back to back episodes of ‘Murder, She Wrote’, I’ve given in to temptation and headed back to the blog.
I warn you, I have nothing to say of any great pertinence about the situation we all find ourselves in. I’m not a scientist nor a medical expert (unlike most other people on Facebook apparently) but I did want to raise an issue that’s been bothering me.
Let me say that I have nothing but praise and admiration for everyone working in the health service and other frontline roles during this pandemic. Your service seems to have been exemplary in the face of such awful pressure.
As well as the Thursday night clap, there have been many posts on social media extolling and acknowledging these newly discovered heroes. I think this is great, but I can’t help but ask why we didn't consider them heroes to begin with?
The thing that really bothers me though is that these gestures of praise cannot seemingly stand alone, they are often accompanied by negativity and even hate, with many posts going on to denigrate others.
Why do people feel that you have to knock someone down as you raise others up?
The target of many of these negative posts are ‘celebrities’.
For me there are two categories of celebrity. There are those who achieve fame through hard work and skill, for example actors and sportsmen, authors and artists.
There are others who are seemingly famous for being famous. Those who have no determinable skill (in my opinion), and who might have the words ‘influencer’ or ‘reality star’ attached to their name.
I have no axe to grind with this latter category, although on occasion it does seem they get caught up in their own self importance. I guess I might fall into this category as I expect you all to read this blog and think I’m wonderful. Please validate my existence!!!
The attacks aimed at celebrities seem to have one main thrust.
You have no value in society now: we have realised that nurses and doctors deserve all of our admiration because they are doing something concrete in the face of this pandemic. They save lives, they tend to our injuries and needs both physical and mental. They risk their lives for others. What are you doing?
Celebrities are just in it for the money and attention. Luvvies and left wingers, snowflakes and…well, endless insults depending on the mindset of the attacker.
I best declare an interest here. I love theatre, film, TV, literature, music & art. Maybe I’m biased in what I’m about to say but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be said.
Dear Haters, when you’ve been sat on your keyboard all day, warrior-ing away, maybe highlighting the work of nurses for example, whilst also spitting poison at actors; what do you then do to relax?
Perhaps you turn on Netflix? Or Spotify? Or a video game? It’s likely you turn to the work of the very people you’ve been bad mouthing. Those who create so much for you to enjoy.
A nurse may help save your life, but what is life without art? Without beauty?
I cannot tell you how much I’m missing the theatre. To think I might not be able to go again for months and months is shattering. But I have music, I have TV, I have box sets, I have streaming events, I even have Zoom coffee mornings with likeminded folk.
There’s much beauty in my life thanks to the work of artists and ‘celebrities’ who are using their skill to keep me, and the rest of the world entertained and sane.
One of the biggest problems with being at home, and not working, is that the phone stops ringing. That’s hard. I guess, like so many in the arts sector, I’m currently resting.
You’re worth as a person may be wrapped up in getting a phone call inviting you to work. But for some there is no work in their chosen field.
Of course many are not resting at all. Many are working wherever there is work to be found, like supermarkets. Anywhere that helps them pay the bills. Some have even been returning to previous jobs in nursing & the care sector.
Still, even in their isolation, artists have been giving us a constant stream of material via the internet. plays, musicals, concerts, poetry…all greedily lapped up by us, the audience.
Can you imagine isolation without this? Or a book. Or a virtual tour of a gallery? Or whichever game occupies your time online.
Heroes come in many guises, and for me those who remind us of the beauty found in life, through the arts, remain heroes.
I hope we never again underestimate the value of our NHS staff, those who care and who put the needs of others before themselves. I also hope we can see it’s OK to put them on a pedestal without knocking someone else from theirs.
We must continue to value and support the arts wherever and however we can. And to all my friends out there, worried about what awaits them after the storm, you will always find an audience, even if it’s just me.
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