Lockdown Amnesia

Lockdown Amnesia is a lens. Nothing in the world changes when you pick it up, but quite a lot becomes visible.

What this concept offers is a pause — one extra beat between what happens and what you do about it. Civilisation, someone said, is measured in that beat.

The idea is simple, and like most simple ideas it is easy to nod at and hard to use. The nod is free. The use costs attention, every day, in small change.

Stand at a tea stall during a big cricket match and you will see a hundred strangers become one family in an evening. The same crowd, given a different match, can split over a surname.

Society is a long conversation; the only question is whether you are listening or merely waiting to speak. Do not memorise it. Notice it. Noticing is the senior discipline.