麻豆社

If I had a penny for every time I've heard the word 'unprecedented' in the past four months, I would be a rich man. But if I depended on a thousand pounds for ever time it has been used properly, I would be a pauper.

The word unprecedented literally means: having no precedent, unparalleled.

And whether it is used with regard to increased border controls, or to do with restrictions on public movement, or the monitoring of a contagion, there are precedents. If not in this country, then certainly elsewhere.

Although our children have missed regular schooling, think of how in the second world war children were removed from both home and school, evacuated to areas of the country they did not know, and made to live with people who were not their relatives for long periods. The sit-com Dad's Army bears witness to what was unparalleled surveillance of our nations' borders. And I can think of stunning examples I heard in conversations with Public Health experts regarding how initiatives spearhead by local practitioners stalled the spread of infectious diseases and changed public behaviour.

The truth is that from the government down most of us have not lived through the kind of upheaval we have been experiencing recently. But is has parallels. And we should not use the term 'unprecedented' either to excuse being ill-prepared or to suggest that an unfamiliar but effective initiative is new.

If what I say rankles, there is precedent for people not wanting to hear about precedents. For me, the most graphic is when Jesus, in suggesting that God
loved more than one nation, illustrated this by quoting two documented incidents of how the prophets Elijah and Elisha centuries before showed compassion for those who were not of their own ethnic origin. His fellow townspeople were so outraged that they made the first direct attempt on his life.

We can both learn and draw hope from precedents.

The unprecedented thing is when we surprise ourselves and others by acting contrary to habit or expectation. This also can be unpopular. When Jesus said, 'if someone slaps you on the face, turn the other cheek; and if someone wants to borrow something, don't ask for it back. 'he was not met with instant popularity or a round of applause.

What changes the world and ourselves is an unprecedented commitment to acts of kindness.

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