“Oh great, another self-righteous narrative on C-19” I hear you internally sigh. Well, maybe…
But before we begin, lets have some music.
2020 so far has been amazing, a breath of fresh air. Something to look back on with fondness and reverie. Not what you expected me to say? Well it’s kind of true.
How lucky are we that a once in a century event has given us the opportunity to see the world with fresh eyes? Something that forces us to actually look away from the distractions in our world that became so commonplace that we didn’t even consider them distractions any more, they became routine, expected;
Bullshit media, bullshit politics, bullshit advertising and bullshit schedules.
Stuff that we expect and almost thrive on with a hungry need for more input like we’re some kind of cultural Jonny-5’s. All this crap has been wiped away like last nights mascara, revealing fresh, but tired eyes.
Widespread lock-downs have forced us to look inside ourselves, to take a moment to look at our life, our relationships, our goals, both as individuals and as a species. We’ve seen first hand what the effects of what we consider insignificant, daily behavior has on our planet and what it could be like if it just, stopped. It’s given us the opportunity to push for alternative lifestyles and work-life balances that may never have come to be otherwise. It’s given us all, time.
In a world where time is money, we’ve been starkly reminded that time, is actually life, your life, your only life, not money.
We’ve been given a lifeline to reflect on our relationships. Exposing both the good and bad aspects that we just glossed over and perhaps unfairly ignored while we myopically trudged through the mundane days that came before, without actually appreciating how extraordinary the people we surround ourselves with, are.
It’s also exposed the fragility of our abusers. The thin promises we so readily consumed, the fake realities that our “idols” held us so enamored over. It’s given us time to re-evaluate how important they are to us in comparison to the people we actually need and love.
It’s given us time to re-evaluate and change our perspectives on what’s actually important.
I’m not for one minute going to try and persuade people who have lost loved ones this year that all this hasn’t come at a price. We’ve all mourned losses, personal, material and emotional. What’s important is that from this day forward we make that a price worth paying, the sacrifice of so many worth it.
We need to take this gift of time to learn lessons in reflection, to change our world and the people we place our faith in. The people we grace our lives to.
The way we considered life to be so normal before 2020 was causing the deaths of thousands of people way before it became medical. Some of our most valued people hid their pain behind smiles right until the very end and what did we do? We stood shocked, paralyzed at their loss, broken-hearted.
Those internal struggles were a direct result of the society we had created for ourselves. Those smiles were the real fake news, plastered on to hide a broken interior they were too afraid to expose. A macro-example of our society as a whole, because no-one took time to pay attention, to care for their loved ones, to create bonds where people felt comfortable enough to actually be real.
We’re still here, we’re learning. We have to learn. To honor those who sadly will not be around to experience the effect of their loss has on us as a wider society.
Stay sane, make changes, demand changes. We are the lucky ones.