Abingdonian 2020

57 www.abingdon.org.uk Summer Term of white noise in the fuselage of the street. I can see the square now. The fountain statue towers over the swathing crowds, thronging in from every direction, moving towards a platform that has been set up in the centre. The doors of the town hall are still bolted shut, as they have been for weeks. The silence of the square belies the mass of humanity present in the vast crowds. As I reach the square and join the back of the nearest queue, a sharp lightning bolt sears through the grey, late-afternoon sky, prompting gasps and yelps from the crowd. There have been no planes in the sky for nearly a year now, so this sudden noise provokes panic around me. As I stand there, I see mothers pull their children closer, hoping that this will protect them from the inevitable onslaught of desperate people, frantic, forcing their way towards the central platform. Past the hopeful, optimistic faces of many of the people, lurks a chronic despair. Despair for themselves, despair for their families and a longing for how it used to be. All anyone can do is just stand there, waiting for food, waiting for a lifeline, wondering if normality can ever be restored. Oliver Clark, 3SJB Upper School - ‘Coronavirus, Teenagers and Mental Health’ This period of ‘lockdown’ is, of course, a peculiar and challenging time for people across the nation; to some extent or another, our lives have been altered in ways that would have been unimaginable mere months ago. From the outset it is important to establish that this is being written from the perspective of an 18 year-old. By no means am I attempting to capture the state of mind of an entire populace, nor that of my generation collectively. Instead, I will endeavour to detail my personal account of lockdown, how it has affected me personally, and what I have tried to do to combat the more difficult aspects of this unconventional day-to-day existence. At the time of writing, I am just a few days away from what should’ve been my first A Level exam. It seems almost inconceivable now that I should be tying up all the loose ends from my school years and revising for what would have been the most important and formidable test of my academic career so far. My school term, indeed my physical school career, concluded abruptly on 20 March following government instruction. On this last day an informal leavers’ ceremony was held, giving us an abbreviated chance to say goodbye to the friends that we had spent the past five years growing up with. Inevitably, I think like all last days of school, it didn’t feel adequate; outside my closest school friends, I know that there are people in my year group who I will most likely never see again. It’s a strange feeling, but one that I’ve now come to terms with. I’m a theology student and for the past two years I’ve studied the Greek principles of ‘telos’ and ‘ontos’; these terms have remained in my mind throughout quarantine and have given me both great difficulty and great strength. The idea of telos was introduced by Aristotle to refer to the full potential or inherent purpose of a person or thing; it is similar to the French term ‘raison d’être’ used first by J S Mill in the 19th century. For all of his flaws, Aristotle may have been on to something in proposing that the ultimate telos of humanity is contemplation. However, contemplation is a double- edged sword during lockdown; whilst contemplation is a crucial part of human existence, lockdown begs the question: what exactly should we be contemplating? Right now, I feel as if I should be ‘contemplating’ Hamlet for my English Literature exam, in the same way that most people feel they ought to be contemplating issues in their job or in activities that have been taken away due to the virus. I, as I’m sure many people do, rely heavily on a set structure in my day to remain productive and keep my mind engaged; the structure of school and the ultimate goal of exams had previously given me my telos, but now we have been plunged into a situation where all things seem rather incoherent and true telos seems to be a far-flung and unattainable ideal. There is a danger when looking at the ancient philosophers to perceive them in a grandiose way; the idea of a ‘telos’ or ultimate purpose appears to be a very daunting prospect, particularly when difficult and abstract terms such as ‘rational thought’ and ‘virtue’ are bandied about so liberally in Aristotle. But we should not be intimidated by these terms in lockdown or in everyday life. We can all find telos in the most trivial of everyday activities. Personally, I have taken to reading more. I took part in an online book exchange so that I might challenge myself to read material that I wouldn’t think of doing so otherwise, but it hasn’t just been reading that has given me a purpose over the last few weeks: I’ve also been walking, cycling, writing, and keeping up with friends to keep me engaged. These pursuits might give the impression of being diversions away from the looming reality of being perpetually imprisoned in my house, but I urge everyone to look upon them differently. If we can all see the profound value of keeping our minds and bodies occupied, no matter the means by which it is done, then we are all one step closer to finding telos, an invaluable asset in maintaining mental health during difficult periods. In the Greek philosophical tradition, Parmenides was among the first to propose an ontological characterization of the fundamental nature of existence; the Greek ‘ontos’ means ‘being’, and therefore ‘ontology’ is the study of ‘being’. By no means am I suggesting that the philosophical arguments proposed in the tradition of ontology are useful for us trying to deal with lockdown, but I will say that some of the questions proposed in this school of thought are helpful in discerning the importance of our existence during this period. Two of the most important questions in ontology are ‘What is existence? i.e. What does it mean for a being to be?’ and ‘What constitutes the identity of an object?’ Ontologists would attempt to answer these questions in metaphysical terms, but that is far too existential a topic when we are already having existential difficulties while isolating from one another! I mentioned that I have been trying to keep in touch with my friends as much as possible at the moment (and we should all feel privileged that we have access to the technology that allows us to do so