A FEARFUL STATE. WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO COMMUNITY?

There are people now living in fear. They are alone. They have nobody. What has happened to community whereas this can happen?

I will say that my husband and I are in this fearful position. There seems to be no remedy. Many people said that the pandemic would lead to a greater sense of community when the pandemic was over. It has actually made matters worse, and of course the pandemic is not yet really over. We still have many people still getting Covid, some for a second the third time.

There is little opportunity nowadays to go out there and make friends, especially when you are a bit older. If you have no family then you are sunk. I well remember when we needed that light bulb changing not too long ago, it was assumed that we had a family member who would help, or a neighbour. We had not. It was hard getting anyone to understand that. It was actually quite frightening, emphasising the precarious position we are in. And if one of us goes. What then?

We have also met the ridiculous position whereby even the church can no longer be friends with people. Whether one believes in God or not is not the issue. The church used to see itself as a caring community and it did not matter if one believed in God or not. But now, there is Safeguarding. This has become a millstone around everyone’s necks because of all the abuse that has gone on. Admittedly this was a serious problem and needed addressing. But now, no one is allowed to visit us in our home because they might abuse us or we might make a false allegation against them. Even in church, two people are not allowed to be in, for instance, the kitchen, together. There has to be another person there too. This is breaking up friendships and community. In our efforst to break our own isolation we did turn to the church where we went in the past, and were told that no one can visit us because of this. We are thus left alone.

We are in the position whe we can only turn to a befriending service whereby someone would come for an hour once a week, but we would have to pay a lot for that. Paying for friendship. What the hell……….

In any case, we have been told that we do not qualify for a befriending service.

I ask again, whatever happened to community? Back in the fifties this would not have hhappened. In fact it would not have happened in the sixties either.

Every day we live with fear. We keep trying to push it down and just get on with things, but it comes up in the end. It is there and it is not irrational. It is real. I wonder how many other people live with this fear? I bet there a lot.