The Economist.
Sometime in 2020,
when the COVID-19 pandemic was raging around the world and millions of us were locked indoors,
I remember being struck by how hard it was to daydream about anything,
serious or fun, when you had no idea what life would look like in the future.
We didn't know if we'd ever go back to the office,
how our children would go school, whether we'd have a social life, a real one, again.
That made it hard even to while away time browsing holiday destinations or looking at clothes to buy.
How could you plan anything, the smallest thing,
when everything you expected from life had been stripped away?
Five years on, it's hard even remember that moment.
But in different ways, every day people have their hopes and dreams knocked from under them.
Futures shockingly changed.
They lose their job.
A friend betrays them.
As in today's story, a loved one dies.
So what happens to the plans you've made when the co-planner suddenly disappears?
And what if those dreams involved other people?
Or to be more precise, making another person?
I'm Rosie Blore and today on The Weeknd Intelligence,