Living During the Coronvavirus Pandemic
Dear reader,
I don’t know what year it’ll be when you read this letter, but I hope it’s at a point in which the COVID-19 ‘s destructive effects have been quelled.
Before going on to the body of this letter, if there’s anything good to come from the global coronavirus outbreak, I hope it’s the society-wide recognition that science is paramount.
If this virus eventually succumbs to its human hosts, it will have done so thanks to science. I ardently hope that populist conspiracy theories about 5G don’t gain any more traction than they currently are at the time of writing.
With that said, what was it like to live during the coronavirus pandemic? I will proceed with the rest of this letter by highlighting some of the lessons I believe we’ve all learned.
Lesson #1: Technology is a Blessing
Technology has been getting a bad rep lately in productivity circuits. We’re constantly reminded about the dangers of social media and the problems of too much screen time. These are valid concerns, but technology does not deserve its bad rep.
The first truth you should know about this pandemic is that it served as a great reminder of how much of a blessing technology is in our lives.
Whether reading Buddhism books on a Kindle to deal with stress, playing video games, watching Netflix, browsing the news headlines online, or having a Zoom video call with friends, many of the most accessible ways to keep ourselves occupied during these worrying times have been enabled by technological progress.
Lesson #2: We Need to Love Nature, Not Conquer It
No, this is not some hippy-dippy flowery crap inspired by taking psychedelics. The truth is that mankind’s modern religion of Inevitable Progress leads us to attempt to conquer nature in the pursuit of achieving ill-considered, temporal ends.
We eat animals that shouldn’t be eaten and we keep very different beings confined in small enclosures, ready for consumption because of our greed.
Ancient wisdom, from the Greeks to the Taoists, regarded nature as something to live in accordance with rather than bend to our will.
The Greeks believed that a hubristic lack of respect towards Logos, or nature, would be punished by an avenging nemesis. We certainly got our nemesis with COVID-19.
Lesson #3: Boredom is Valuable
With all the available forms of entertainment during this pandemic, powered mostly by technology, there’s still been plenty of boredom. Not as much boredom as there would’ve been if this happened 50 years ago, but still.
I feel like boredom is something that is underappreciated. The value of boredom is that it causes us to take stock of our lives and our values and adjust things accordingly.
Great insights and creativity can come from boredom as can the pursuit of new hobbies. Career changes are made possible by boredom too.
Sometimes we get so caught up in the daily grind of life that we don’t take a moment to question what we’re doing and where we are going. I hope more people give themselves the space to be bored after this pandemic because I think it’s essential in life.
Lesson #4: Humans Are Remarkably Resilient
I am, by nature, quite an anxious person who worries a lot about future events and ruminates about past mistakes. If you told me 6 months ago that a global pandemic would wreak havoc upon society within the next few months, I probably would’ve had a panic attack.
A strange thing happens though when you actually live through this type of situation: you get used to it. Despite the huge shift in how we live our lives, I’ve noticed my anxiety has paradoxically lessened.
Observing people around me, I’ve been both impressed and surprised with the resilience we’re all showing. Having to stay at home and keep contact with others to a minimum is hardly wartime, but it’s still a huge and rapid shift in how we live. We’ve (mostly) coped admirably.
Lesson #5: The Present Moment is Paramount
When people like Alan Watts or Ram Dass spoke about the present moment and its importance, I tend to intellectually agree with what they were saying rather than experientially knowing it.
However, I believe we’ve all learned just how fragile and delicate the balance of life is during this pandemic. And correspondingly, we can all see the reality of how important the present moment is. I delved further in another post on how coronavirus helps us deal with our mortality.
The present is where life happens. And life can be taken from us in a flash, so it makes no sense not to try and pay attention to life as it happens.
Whether you’re watching television, brushing your teeth, learning a song on the guitar, or playing with your child, own every moment and be there for it.
That’s what I can muster up at the moment, as I sit here reflecting about these strange times. I hope some of these lessons will stick.
Yours sincerely,
Ronan