With the coronavirus pandemic the importance of life, more than ever, has become very clear. With thousands of people sadly losing their lives to this virus, and by spending many, many hours isolated and alone, the meaning of life has become an incredibly pertinent topic. It is interesting how life becomes important when you\u2019re faced with losing it. In every cloud there is a silver lining, and thanks? (I guess) to COVID-19 we can now appreciate the very thing that we take for granted every day. Life.<\/p>\n
Many great philosophers have tried to reveal and understand the true meaning of life, and I certainly won\u2019t be able to. However, I think, especially in times like these, it is crucial that we reflect on the importance of the gift of life. We are given the opportunity to live a free, long life on Earth, and whether you believe we are here due to science, or because of God, one thing we can all agree on is that, although we face many ups and downs during our lives, just to experience it, surrounded by love, happiness, and freedom is so special.<\/p>\n
As humans in this modern, developed age, we tend to take lots of things for granted; food, shelter, clothing, until we see pictures of children starving in Africa, or we walk past a homeless person in the street. Seeing these people suffering makes us appreciate what we have. One thing this pandemic has shown us is that we take our freedom, our life, our toilet rolls for granted.<\/p>\n
We are faced with so much doom and gloom in the news, that it can have an overwhelmingly negative impact on our lives, especially because we\u2019re isolated. Negativity has always been a key element of the media, and in this pandemic, when we need light and positivity most, all the negativity has overshadowed the positive aspects we can take from this unusual situation. As we are all isolating ourselves, we have plenty of time to do things we would never do before; read a book, go for a run, play a boardgame, FaceTime your friends. The fact that the elderly generation are now able to use technology to contact their loved ones is an incredible step forward in progress, meaning the elderly are less isolated than ever, despite the distance.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve seen the amazing work healthcare professionals, teachers, shop assistants, volunteers and politicians can do. We usually take these people for granted, or criticise them for what they do or don\u2019t do, however, these extraordinary people are going above and beyond for us. They\u2019re risking their lives for us. We are rarely thankful for these people, but, if COVID-19 has shown us anything, it\u2019s the drive and willpower of these amazing people, who we don\u2019t usually think of celebrating.<\/p>\n
This coronavirus outbreak is a tragedy and unfortunately a lot of people have sacrificed their lives, sacrificed seeing their families, sacrificed their education, to help fight this cause. The media can\u2019t help but spread negativity, which then causes us to feel like there is no positivity in the world. Even by staying home you are making a difference; you are helping to stop the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n
Although the coronavirus has caused so much distress and damage, it is important to recognise the positives that have come out of this: reduction in pollution, the increased use of technology for good, ground breaking medical activity, our new found appreciation for all essential workers.<\/p>\n
Life has become so much more important. When we get through this, and we will, won\u2019t normal life feel amazing. The feeling of going to school, or to the cinema, or to see your friends; life will have so much more meaning because, if COVID-19 has shown us anything, it\u2019s the importance of life.<\/p>\n
Article by Young Reporter Sophie Read<\/strong> This weeks interesting read by Young Reporter Sophie. Read on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"xn-wppe-expiration":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-action":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-prefix":[],"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[369,11],"tags":[626],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3cThd-5HU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21942"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21942"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21944,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21942\/revisions\/21944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFirst appeared in the Grimsby Telegraph 5th May 2020<\/em><\/p>\n\n