"IT was no ugly sound; even in its implacable sternness it was golden” (CS Lewis).

The FM’s statement of Tuesday past may have caused many to pause, and perhaps for a variety of reasons. Having candidly put before us the meticulous arrangement of regulations and protocols that are now to obtain, Ms Sturgeon crafted a captivating coda: “Be strong, be kind, and let’s continue to act out of love and solidarity.”

Even the immediately preceding movement had a finesse that did not want for delicacy of intonation, for she was wont, too, to express her gratitude for the sacrifices made; she apologised for the added demands; and appealed for unity in our common struggle against the malign and malevolent threat, the clear and present danger, that Covid-19 constitutes.

However, let us return to the coda, and call CS Lewis alongside to enable a hermeneutic of sorts, assisting us in discerning the elements in that appeal that might have caused us to pause and ponder awhile.

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The “sound”, the content, the medicine prescribed, would not have been for everyone the most palatable of remedies or regimens (more of an emetic than an emollient) – yet it was not “ugly”. To be sure, although possessing, in a sense, a singular “sternness” – it had too a certain prepossessing “golden” quality. A certain beauty.

It was enamouring to hear the FM communicate, though not for the first time, her message en clair, in the key of love. There is something greater than mere sentiment here. The word love does not frequently feature in the limpid lexicon of even the truest of public servants; and it is rarely, if at all, part of the pallid patois of that type of politician about whom there is more of the picaroon than of the paragon, and who is motivated more by pecuniary pursuits than by philanthropy - and by such the present UK administration appears to be populated.

However, the FM embraced the term readily, proposing its role, as it were, as Scotland’s “enciente”, our strong bulwark in the battle against Covid. In so doing, she embraced the heart of the matter and introduced the warm and cordial notes of kindness, relationship, and, importantly, friendship, into our consciousness; our willingness to do the right thing.

In this she assumes a stance that marks her out as an outlier in the milieu of governance – a fact recognised by the recent research published in The Lancet from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the National University of Singapore (FM one of few to ‘gain trust’ during virus pandemic, September 26). Others not so far away – and yet galaxies away – have failed to emulate the level of dependable and prudent stewardship evidenced in the FM’s management of the Covid-19 crisis.

Her statement was, of its nature, a heart to heart. Not at all cosseting, but gently challenging each of us and all of us to unite in the face of an existential menace – one that can only be overcome by an accord, a oneness of heart: our solidarity; the essential praxis of social charity.

By invoking love – understood as agape, a concern and care for the other – the FM succeeded in bearing to the fore of her messaging the quality of benevolence. As Thomas Aquinas maintains, “to love is to will the good of the other”.

The FM feelingly fostered in the sincerity of her communication a call to each of us to recognise the indomitable force that is solidarity, and so serve the common good.

Dorothy Day, whose work in the US among the poor and destitute (poverty being another form of pandemic) provides her voice with no little credibility, put it this way: “It is love that will make us want to do great things for each other. No sacrifice,

and no suffering will then seem too much.”

Patrick Hynes
Airdrie, North Lanarkshire