Humanity is renegotiating life

• Predictability, pace & priorities

It is getting weirder by the day. Mankind is being virtually held hostage by a contagion. Life is now largely dictated by the fast-changing coronavirus pandemic statistics. It hit the world like a storm early this year, literally turning it upside down with major disruptions globally. Within a matter of weeks it rendered all major powers and people glorying in arrogance and conceit abjectly helpless. As if some divine spell cast to humble humanity!

Until the coronavirus surfaced one thought the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States had changed the world. However, almost two decades later the invisible microbe of covid-19 has shaken all economies out of their dividends, bringing down consumerism like the twin towers of New York.

A paradigm shift has already begun to come to the fore, a new world order as it were. As a friend aptly put it: we have been slapped onto the future. Onto the brink of the unknown.

After initial shock, disbelief and denial, people are now fast losing patience with the unseen and ever-lurking coronavirus. Panic, despair, dismay and depression are now beginning to set in as hopes of a vaccine to terminate covid-19 begin to fade and uncertainly about the pandemic’s end looms. Constrained by the constant threat of this unpredictable beast of a disease, humanity is renegotiating life, its predictability, pace and priorities. A particularly tough time for all the youth, who had planned their future in an imagined world far removed from the reality.

Those who believed that the coronavirus would just disappear are now beginning to surrender to this monster although with a heavy heart. The initial resistance is now turning into resignation. Covid-19 will change many colours as it continues to spread across the globe. Let’s hope it reshapes our lives for the better and make us more sensitive and responsive to the needs of fellow human beings.

We have been shifting gears with a soaring number of confirmed cases and deaths caused by this disease. At the outset it was declared an epidemic, then a pandemic and finally upgraded to an endemic. This means it is not going to go away any time soon as most of humanity had hoped earlier. The World Health Organization has already forewarned that covid-19 “may never go away.” A group of Harvard University disease researchers said earlier in the week that the world might need to practice social distancing through 2022 to prevent covid-19 from surging anew. A long haul!

So, where do we go from here?

Clearly, we cannot bank on our imagination or available information to predict what the future holds. That, it appears, is humanity’s only takeaway from Coronavirus so far. Thus: the need to make major adjustments to our personal and professional lives to our respective ends! We are all creatures of habit and with time we will make structural adjustments to our lives as there is no other option. Consider it like an unpopular IMF structural adjustment programme that has been imposed on countries worldwide─ initially resisted but eventually accepted. No challenge comes without an opportunity. It opens doors to new possibilities─ or closes some to force introspection and reform at both the individual and collective level.

For now, this demon of the coronavirus is forcing us to revisit our humble and simple beginnings. To realign and become more self-reliant. Reconnect to our soul and heed the inner voice. Those with a spiritual insight see it as a divine intervention to reverse human transgression on many counts. A reminder that many generations in ancient times have been destroyed due to such transgressions. Man’s ingratitude for countless blessings is one big reason. Perhaps this is essentially to draw us back to core values of humanity: forbearance, compassion, kindness, empathy, humility, peace, mutual respect, love and social justice. To restore respect for human dignity and moral strength. Most importantly, to be conscious of God, give purifying dues, and thus be graced with God’s mercy of healing. That ultimately all protective power rests with God alone. The realization gradually sinking in is that there is more in less, and in less there is more peace. That accumulation and materialism add to the burden of existence and make our lives more complicated and tedious. Contentment is liberating and complaining is constraining just as it is draining.

Till now life has been a race against time, and now suddenly people have plenty of time to kill! Best utilized by reading books that have been collecting dust on shelves, meditating, reflecting and discovering our inner strengths. And building on these strengths. This novel virus has altered the pace of life and the nature of the workspace drastically. A key question then is how to stay connected, and find acceptance in our new normal. As social distancing is being embraced, we are seeing cultural shifts to zoom workspaces and google classroom for online classes. More cost-effective as it saves the time and money that we were taxed with every day by commutes and travels. For creative minds, new media and digital landscapes have opened up new ways of being productive at (or away from) the workplace. The doors of arts and culture are now open to all interested beyond borders. Earlier such participation was constrained by physical mobility. From a transnational aspect, the recent online film festival in Brooklyn could be accessed by all who had laptops and Internet facility.

In this digital age the Internet has kept connectivity alive and kicking, saving the world from being pushed into complete isolation. The shrinking public space due to the Coronavirus has been effectively substituted by the virtual platform. And for this summer those who had planned holidays thousands of miles away from their homeland can now discover the joys of exploring the beauty and diversity of their own land.

On a lighter note (if there can be one in the midst of all the gloom), Coronavirus has emerged as a ‘huge relief package’ for many of those who don’t fancy socializing and have had enough of PR, social networking and socializing. No pressure or social anxiety anymore! For now, there is respite from the hypocrisy of indulging in fake smiles, half-hearted handshakes and embracing folks that you wish were on some other planet! Surely the coronavirus scare will keep them all at bay! While many still yearn for social interaction, others are content staying home and relish solitude.

Those who believed that the coronavirus would just disappear are now beginning to surrender to this monster although with a heavy heart. The initial resistance is now turning into resignation. Covid-19 will change many colours as it continues to spread across the globe. Let’s hope it reshapes our lives for the better and make us more sensitive and responsive to the needs of fellow human beings.

The famous ‘Seven Advice of Rumi’ says it all beautifully:

1. In generosity and helping others, be like a river
2. In compassion and grace, be like the sun
3. In concealing others’ faults, be like the night
4. In anger and fury, be like the dead
5. In modesty and humility, be like the earth
6. In tolerance, be like the sea
7. Either appear as you are or be as you look.