
Dear readers, where to even start?
As Melbourne entered week seven of this "seven-day lockdown", it really has felt like the end of days.
Riot scenes flashing across our screens, COVID numbers at new heights and the earth - the one solid foundation we thought we could depend upon during this ever-crumbling reality - shook from its core, in its wake shaking us all to our own cores.
Watch: Things you never say in 2021. Post continues after video.
This city has been through the wringer. And to throw an earthquake on top of anarchy in the streets and crowning us the most locked-down city of all time seemed like a plot twist from a Hollywood movie, not real life.
But unlike a Hollywood movie, there is no script or known ending to this never-ending saga and I don’t have the words anymore. And in lieu of being able to hire a big-time screenwriter to twist a tale of the time lost and hypothesize the natural disasters to come, as I have done multiple times in this nightmare of a week/month/year, I reached out to my community for help and they provided the words.
This city is filled with an overwhelming majority of everyday heroes who despite all odds, make the quiet, continued, and quite frankly exhausting decision to be human. Yes, we are tired. Yes, we are rattled (recently in more ways than one). Yes, we are fed up, frustrated and beyond fatigued. But we are not the lack of humanity you see splashed across news headlines.
The latest villains of our tale, loud as they may be, are a small minority and will get no more storylines in this script. Instead, we zoom in on the John Wick level bravery that comes in the daily choices millions of people are making to not let the darkness that surrounds them creep in, and to instead choose to fight for humanity.
The everyday heroes that see beauty despite the bleakness, and find hope in tomorrow in the face of the constant bombardment of new stressors.
This my dear readers is the Melbourne I know. The Melbourne that makes me love this city despite the fragility of both the emotions cascading inside of me and the ground beneath my feet. The Melbourne that has been stuck in this monotonous Groundhog Day loop, but is hopeful for a different future, anyway. The Melbourne where every single person could find a reason to be out in the streets, kicking and screaming about all the ways things aren’t fair, but instead takes a deep breath and digs down deep to find the motive not to indulge in such tantrums.
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