Since isolation began last month, I've used the downtime to reflect on current events. With a constant influx of information, it can be challenging to parse out the truth from the noise. This overwhelming lack of clarity has motivated me to study and share issues that I am passionate about. In this way, I am strengthening my communication skills and confidence in discussing controversial topics.
For example, many of us might agree that the COVID-19 crisis has interrupted our typical daily routines. While you may be eager to resume business as usual after isolation, I encourage you to briefly entertain a different perspective—we don't have to return to normal. Might it be that we were stuck in normal? Every response to this pandemic is an intensification of where society was already headed; social distancing, migration of commerce and education online, restriction of civil liberties. This pause in normalcy is a rare opportunity to create a new world with sustainable systems and elevated consciousness.
Modern ideologies of isolation have conditioned us to value survival and security. This is demonstrated by those currently hoarding groceries or investing greedily. I would argue that this fallacy of separateness has led us astray. It has repressed a natural altruism that defines a full and meaningful life as one of connection and service. Over the past several weeks, I have witnessed many random acts of kindness within the community. When the confining routines of normality waiver, human solidarity breaks through the cracks in the system.
With our economic, political and healthcare systems in free fall, let us reimagine a better world for all. How might we diffuse the concentration of wealth and power? Could we adopt a functional medicine approach to prevent disease rather than treat symptoms? Could we work together to reverse climate change in order to ensure a bright future for generations to come? Might we replace animal exploitation with respect for all living beings? How might we redirect our time and money to give, help and serve others? COVID-19 has shown that rapid change is possible when humanity is united in common cause.
Without minimizing the hardships that accompany COVID-19, I invite you to recognize this golden moment as extraordinary. We are at a crossroads with the potential to reclaim our sovereignty and leverage our future rather than adapt to one that seems inevitable; a choice is available. With humility and gratitude, let us construct a balanced, heart-based, sustainable new world.
"COVID-19 is like a rehab intervention that breaks the addictive hold of normality. To interrupt a habit is to make it visible; it is to turn it from a compulsion to a choice. When the crisis subsides, we might have occasion to ask whether we want to return to normal, or whether there might be something we’ve seen during this break in the routines that we want to bring into the future."
—The Coronation by Charles Einstein
