From the Wellerman to Wordle, the lessons on how to solve Covid are ringing out loudly

Little yellow, green, and grey boxes started appearing in people’s timelines just a few weeks ago. I was puzzled and waited until a link was posted.

Today, I’m on a 10-day streak of wins, and I know that Wordle is 2022’s suggestion for how to solve our problems.

In 2020, while people spent weeks and months alone, often seeing loved ones die through the NHS equivalent to Zoom, ministers were partying and gathering in front of buffets with sausage rolls and party food.

One rule (and fines and imprisonment) for us, and another rule for them; suitcases full of booze included.

How do we make sense of a reality that has so many of us not only feeling outraged and heartbroken, but quite sensibly feeling weakened as a society?

Let’s look to the biggest collective choices that we made over the last two years. One was the sea shanty craze; the other is a solitary but collective and shared game, where we need to find five-letter words.