Pearl’s Blog

Faith, Love and Toilet Rolls

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My beloved friends,

What a to do?! I've found myself a tiny bit obsessed with the toilet roll situation over the last few days, but mainly with a question… Why?

Why have people in the UK (and Australia, and probably other places I'm not aware of) decided that bulk buying toilet roll is the important thing to do in a crisis?

(Look away if you're not the camping type – I'll let you know when you can come back out from behind your hands.)

It seems alien to me, and my family (mostly) because of those years of camping, those years of going out early in the morning for walks in the woods with my grandparents, when no one carried a pocket pack of tissues or hand wipes or sanitiser, because it was all just nature. You went behind a tree and you used a leaf (not a stinging nettle) and then you carried on the walk.

That's not to say that when I did the Camino de Santiago I didn't carry a toilet roll in my pocket (pilgrim trick – squash it, take out the tube and it'll fit in a rucksack pocket), but I would never have used toilet paper if I was out in nature (and this is another big drama – the number of people walking the Camino de Santiago, using toilet paper in nature and leaving it there). This is when I do a big sigh and cannot believe that these people haven't been trained better. It's better than when I go completely nuts on top of Mount Snowdon where people leave plastic bottles and other rubbish to blow around in the wind.

But this is it… I was trained better. I was trained by my parents and grandparents to get out into nature, to walk in the woods when I got stressed, to take myself off to the beach, to leave only footprints and take only photographs. And to read the signs and watch the weather.

I also learned young that newspaper will suffice when you can't afford toilet roll.

And I learned in student houses that sometimes you just jump in the shower because no one else will buy loo roll.

It's basic. So basic. But my mother and grandmother used terry nappies when we were babies – there was nothing disposable about that time. They used and reused, and boiled nappies in great big pots on the stove to sterilize them.

I really hope we don't have to do that.

(You can look back now.)

Nature is beautiful and messy and painful and uncomfortable sometimes, but it is what we have – it is what we are, and it's most disturbing for a great deal of the population to realise that we belong to nature. When the big storms come, the winds and the rain, we can prepare, but we cannot control.

I read a psychologist's take on the toilet paper drama. It's actually not even about life, it’s about comfort. (Not the brand.) The desire to buy and stockpile toilet paper is in part due to the practical – it’s easy to store and doesn’t go out of date, and psychologically the big size of the packs makes it seem more important… but above all it’s a symbol of first world comfort. It's a symbol of never having to use a leaf. (And if you need a laugh right now, check out the great film, "Hunt for the Wilderpeople".)

We are addicted to feeling comfortable, to not feeling anything other than safe.

Toilet roll will not save your life.

A pension fund will not save your life.

It gets to me too, this conversation. To be honest, what has put me off networking more than the risk of germs is constantly having to explain that I am being careful, not shaking hands, trying not to get too close, not because I will not survive it if I catch the virus, but because of all of my immune system depleted relatives.

When they say, "Oh, but it’s only old people and people with poor immune systems who have to worry."

And I sigh heavily again, and I say, "That's my family."

"Oh, oh… well…" and then they'll tell me of the story of someone in their family dying.

It is not helpful.

We cannot hold back the tide. I walk along the shore and remember King Canute (very famous in these parts) and how he tried to hold it back.

But of course we can take action, we can build a boat, we can learn to prepare (but not stockpile), and care (but not smother) our loved ones and, of course, share.

But most of all, I hope that what this crisis teaches us is to live. To look up from the red alerts, to not give up or act apathetically, but to find the middle ground of remembering what is important, what we are alive for.

To make sure that our families and friends are firmly on our priorities lists along with work and exercise.

To eat well, sleep well and exercise.

(Speaking of which, remember that you don't have to go to a class to do Zumba – all you have to do is stick some music on and let your body remember how to dance and have fun – I'm with you and I even have a few old videos on YouTube!)

We worry so much about what will happen in our lives right now, we worry about whether we will live or die, we worry about whether our loved ones will live or die… but in the meantime, are we living as we really want to?

Embrace life. Make plans. If you suddenly remember that you wanted to visit China, or Japan, start planning, read travel guides – preferably the ones I've written.

I'll be visiting my grandma, sharing stories, knowing that no matter what happens next, we have truly lived.

"There may be trouble ahead,

But while there's moonlight and music and love and romance,

Let’s face the music and dance."

Lots of love, Pearl x

P.S. If you want to read more, I've written three articles for WHYTT Magazine about the London Fashion week shows and the current state of fashion…

And here is my new book, "Pearl Escapes Fear of Success" – now available in hardback, and here is the video about how you can get your own personalised copy.