LIFE DURING AND AFTER THE VIRUS

Well, we are all having to cope with the changes and uncertainty that this pandemic has presented to us. Many of us have had to make extraordinary sacrifices as we have given up our jobs and businesses as we cooperated with self-quarantining, thus reducing our interactions with each other as we avoid contact and when we had to have some interactions we kept six feet apart and even put on masks for further protection. It seems like a lot to expect of people and yet they [we] are responding and taking responsibility for following directions and maintaining safety. Who would have predicted this level of cooperation. Maybe you don't feel like there is a lot of cooperation but there does not appear to be coersion, either. So, does this mean that if we are all facing the same threat we will join with each other and face this threat together? Does this mean that previously percieved differences between us and others are no longer important or do the differences actually seem to disappear?

The pandemic gives each of us the opportunity to choose to be present as we become accountable to ourselves, and each other, as we follow the guidelines that keep each other safe by choosing to wear masks to protect others...strangers even. Isn't it true that by wearing a mask we are acknowledging our connection to everyone else? Can this then lead to a feeling of contentment and even the possibility of a feeling of joy?

I am also sadly reminded that the worst "pandemics" we have faced over the centuries are not from viruses, but from tyrannical rulers who have infected millions so that they will choose to kill each other in wars as these rulers promote our seeing the world as an "us against them" place. In contrast, the viral pandemic can help us see that we are linked with each other and not against each other. Maybe we can choose to have the feeling that we are connected to each other endure after the pandemic is over.

What do you think?