There was a time when lockdown was a novelty. We were all together in this, and we oohed and aahed at all the changes. Social media updates were all about how panic buying caused a toilet paper shortage, how the streets in major cities were empty, how nature was flourishing and reclaiming where man no longer interfered. We locked ourselves away. We washed and sanitised everything incoming into our spaces such as groceries.

Then the grief came. The numbers were piling up as more and more faces we knew passed away. The fear made us huddle further into our spaces, trying our best to stay safe. Coupled with this, came the inevitable conspiracy theorists. None of this was real said the tinfoilers. It was all an elaborate hoax aimed at making the man bend its collective knee.

Our much-anticipated “family meetings” when our President spoke to us on tv, looking wearier and wearier, were the topic of many debates. We discovered terms like lockdown levels, we discovered rules like curfew, travel restrictions and alcohol bans. The economy suffered, businesses suffered, we all suffered. A state of emergency was declared.

We all had different coping mechanisms. Mine, as always, was to write. I diligently wrote about my experience daily, then every second day, then no more as it became too real, too painful and too hard. Our own business was taking enormous strain. Clients who became friends closed their doors, one after the other. Our hospitality clients were taking the hardest strain. I am an ideas-person, I am all about solutions. But nothing I could do, could help them.

A couple of days ago, the final family meeting brought a much-anticipated change to all our lives: the state of emergency was declared over. With immediate effect, lockdowns and accompanying restrictions were lifted. There would be a 30 day transition period on some of the regulations.

Following the collective sigh of relief, there came the inevitable what now? For the longest lockdown in the world (the counts differed, but around 740 days) we were told what to do, when to do it and how to do it. Bringing to mind a fable I read as a young girl about how to train an elephant:

As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

We have been trained, and now we are told we are free. Are we?