Wyn Drabble: I have a dream and it's Covid free

Wyn Drabble is dreaming of the day we don't hear the words social distancing. Photo / NZME

Let us not wallow in the valley of lockdown despair, I say to you today, my friends.

No. We've had it good so far but now we have difficulties to face. But, I still have a dream. It is a dream rooted in the Kiwi dream. I have a dream that one day the team of five million will rise together and be Covid-free.

I have a dream that one day soon from the brown hills of the Mackenzie country, farmers and their wives will be able to go and queue at the Fairlie supermarket without distancing and without wearing face masks.

And, inside, there will be toilet paper and flour on the shelves. They might even grab a feed at the pie shop on their way home.

I have a dream that one day soon even the Auckland region, an area sweltering with the heat of lockdown oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom, mask-free and distancing-free and without lists of places of interest.

I have a dream that my own three children will one day soon live in a nation where they will not be judged by the quality of their masks, the status of their inoculation certificates or their distance from the nearest person.

Wyn Drabble

I have a dream that one day soon, even down in Invercargill, plagued as it is with mayoral issues and cheese roll recipe disagreements, little boys and little girls will be able to join hands as sisters and brothers, free from the fear of the Delta variant, free from the bullying that comes from wearing the wrong sort of face mask.

And I have faith in this hope. It is a hope that we can hew a stone of promise from this mountain of despair and, as one, as a team of five million, throw away the shackles of our face masks (but in a responsible environment-friendly manner using the appropriate bins).

There will be a day when we can sing God of Nations and Pokarekare Ana in a beautiful symphony of pandemic-free togetherness. Let this sound ring.

And if we are to be a united team of five million, this must happen.

Let our "kia ora" or "gidday, mate" ring from the green and rather moist Westland region. Let it ring from the snowcapped peaks of the Southern Alps, from the sweeping plains of Canterbury and from the vineyards of Marlborough (perhaps stopping for a sauvignon blanc on the way through).

I have a dream.

Let it ring from the quaint but fashionable little shops of Greytown with their handmade rimu furniture and their trendy knick-knacks. Anyone for hemp placemats?

Let it ring from the big carrot of Ohakune. And let us not overlook any other fruit or vegetable installation that adorns our country.

I have a dream.

And let it ring from the waters of Lake Taupō and the steaming mud pools of Rotorua so that we can all go to public places, eschew social distancing and burst our bubbles, knowing that we are finally free from Covid.

Let it ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi – oops, sorry, wrong speech!

Let it ring from the gumboot capital of Taihape and from the black sands of the west coast beaches. Let it ring from the stretches of Ninety Mile Beach even though it is actually only 55 miles long. Roughly. Let us even have a crack at measuring it again.

Let "self-isolation" and "Covid tracing app" become vocabulary of the past. Also "bubble" except in its merrier rainbow-tinted sense.

Let us hew even just a tiny corner, a teaspoonful of hope, from the lamington of despair.

Only then can we begin to feel Covid-free. Free at last.

Wyn Drabble is a teacher of English, a writer, musician and public speaker