October 2020

Pre-covid, if you went up to Glencoe for the auction, you would have been treated to a traditional experience, a chance for locals to gather for a gossip; well they still can – but in order to survive the months of lockdown the auctioneers have also moved their business online, drastically increasing the potential audience for what’s become known as a typical ‘Jersey’ experience.

Even as the debris of 2020 continues to swirl around us, there are still examples of positive progress, swooping and ducking in the wind.

Whenever people reach into their minds for an example of someone who is likely to be ‘left behind’ online, the word ‘traditional’ will often be one of the first ones to arrive on their lips.

They would be wrong. It’s just an excuse. One positive to be drawn from our experience with covid this year is the reminder to always challenge our habits and assumptions, and that’s a really good thing.

Stick with me on this, but there’s a Dylan line which is relevant here: “Inside the museums, infinity goes up on trial.” Fix something in time, deny it the lifeblood of change, and you are surely killing it. Preservation, as the team at Glencoe have proved (once again) comes in continual adaptation, change, being open-minded to fresh approaches and NEVER choking yourself within the security blanket of ‘what used to be.’

At the other end of the scale, the pace of change this year – and I’m not just thinking about the public health instructions from Boris Johnson – has left many bewildered, disorientated and spinning.

Whatever world emerges after the pandemic, its guaranteed to be pretty different from that which existed in early March 2020; better to spend our energy on shaping our small part in that changed world, rather than – like a moth, smashing itself to death against a lightbulb – draining our resources trying to keep alive something which is already dead, we just haven’t accepted it yet.

The natural world understands this of course, it is continually shifting and adapting even within the cycle of the seasons. We must learn that lesson fast, I think, in the coming months.

Connect will be here to help make sense of it all.
Enjoy.