Natural Optimism

During the lockdown, one of the things we have going on at work is a "Picture of the Week" contest. Well, a contest of sorts - it's mostly just a bit of fun. But one of the things that I have noticed is just how many of the pictures that are posted are of landscapes, or sunsets (or sunrises), or animals, or otherwise of the natural world. I suppose that's not surprising - the human world has come crashing down, so it makes sense to take comfort in what remains.

I can't help but thinking, yet again, of how priviliged that makes us. In most places in Scotland it's not that hard to get away to somewhere natural, or at least some facsimile of it. And even the less renowned parts of Scotland can still manage to be rather nice:

Given that we're stuck here for another three weeks, given that that lockdown is becoming increasingly hard to bear, and given also that even when it does end it won't be a reversion to the way things were before, it's very nice to be able to at least step out of doors and get a genuine and refreshing change in the outdoors.

#20: "Eberron: Rising from the Last War", by Wizards of the Coast