At times I have felt I am living in a dream, it just seems so surreal the situation we have found ourselves in. This pandemic and the crisis it is creating has impacted all of us in different ways and for many of us it is causing anxiety, stress, despair and loss of employment.

I had written several paragraphs critiquing the response of our Government and Prime Minister over the last two weeks, but I have deleted these as I guess it’s easy to be negative and to blame and show fault. All I will say is that from my perspective it is extremely disappointing that our leaders (at the Federal level at least) have created more angst, confusion and contempt with their messaging and approach to the crisis. This is endemic of our political class who are increasingly letting us down in a myriad of ways. However we all must take responsibility for this as it is our collective apathy and contempt towards politics that is allowing them to get away with this. As Plato once said, “If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.”

However, I can’t sit on a pedestal and say that everything I have done or haven’t done in the last few days and weeks with regard to responding to our pandemic has been perfect, like many of us I was initially somewhat apathetic to it all. However it was only a couple of weeks ago when it finally dawned on me that this crisis is very serious and needs all of us to do our bit.

Over the last 18 months or so I’ve been reading a lot about the Stoics and their philosophies. It has helped me realise that I should only focus on what I can control and one thing I can control is how I respond. The Stoics have a philosophy called ‘Amor Fati’, which is a love of fate and it is the idea that getting angry and complaining solves nothing, we can decide that this was chosen for us, nothing is so bad that some good can’t come of it and we can turn difficulty and adversity into fuel to inspire us to be better. Also, when we are faced with obstacles we should make opportunities to keep calm, face our fears, look for what we can learn, try new things, persevere, help others and tackle problems one step at a time. I have also learned the value of meditation and mindfulness and this is also helping me immensely to keep my priorities and perspective in check. But I am human, so I’m far from perfect and at times I have let things get the better of me. However I am still learning to be better every day and that is the most important thing.

We have all learned that physical distancing from each other is a key strategy to curtail the spread of the coronavirus. I prefer to use the term physical distancing as we need to remain social, just physically apart, so I don’t want to be socially distant, Although, having said that, for me the thought of having to spend time alone at home is quite comforting. As an introvert at heart I am more than happy in my own company, well I am not alone, I do have the cat and the dog … and Amy, yes I guess she is home too, I best not forget her. But, nothing makes me feel more content than having some great music playing and/or escaping into a book, movie or doco, pottering around the garden or typing some random thoughts and sharing them on the interwebs. If I have to put more emphasis on that for the next few weeks or months then so be it.

But don’t get me wrong, I do love to spend time with friends and family but that will just have to be from a distance for the time being. I am really heartened when I see how people are using technology to keep in touch and to keep some of their traditional get-together’s going albeit in a different fashion. Although this does remind how much of a luddite I am when it comes to all things technology, perhaps a learning for me from this experience is to engage and learn more about all these things so I can also participate and not feel so ignorant when trying to navigate my way through a new app or software.

We have witnessed some ordinary behaviour as a result of our crisis. However, cursing the origin of the virus, being racist, perpetuating conspiracy theories and hoarding toilet paper will not save us. Despite all this and the obvious issues and challenges this crisis has brought us, our situation also reminds us of the positive that is our human existence. It reminds us that we are all equal, the virus does not discriminate, even celebrities and politicians have contracted it. It reminds us how interconnected we all are. Our interconnectedness has been made more evident to me as I research my mum’s family history. Once you start delving into the family tree it feels almost infinite in how far and wide it spreads. I believe our realisation of how interconnected we are should mean we no longer divide the world into ‘them’ and ‘us’, we need to think of everyone belonging to one humanity. I am sure the response of some of us to this crisis will be finger pointing and blaming others leading to further xenophobia. At the very least we will be more wary of some of the global linkages we have, even long after this crisis is over. However, this crisis should be a catalyst towards greater connection and cooperation as some of those global linkages will be vital for us to tackle our other global crisis, climate change.

Our need to stay at home to combat this pandemic is forcing many of us to slow down, take a deep breath and provides an opportunity for us to reflect on our community, society and humanity as a whole. I believe we need to find a better way to organise ourselves to live a more appropriate existence that doesn’t mean others are exploited and disadvantaged or that we continue to work against nature. It is this thought that is never far from my consciousness and consumes much of my mental energy and since this crisis commenced it has been even more so. I don’t have the answers and I’m sure I never will have them all but I have every confidence that if we collectively turn our mind to this challenge that finding utopia may not be far away. Perhaps this crisis is the catalyst for this too.

What I do know is I have no confidence whatsoever that capitalism and its related ideologies of neoliberalism and materialism can provide us a sustainable and humane future. It is based wholly on exploitation for individual gain, exploiting other people and the environment and is tantamount to the ideology of a cancer cell, pursuing endless growth which ends up killing itself (us) and its host (the earth). Capitalism is creating widespread poverty, extreme wealth inequality, climate change and innumerate examples of environmental devastation. It is making us a more selfish and greedy society that has lost touch with nature and each other. How about we try focussing on the ideology of the flower instead, “A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it, it just blooms.” Zen Shin

I am certainly not advocating for communism or some other ideology that can also be manipulated by the powerful and the few. Whatever we come up with needs to stop turning every element of our society to be focussed on lining the pockets of the rich as that’s what is happening now. It confounds me to think that several individuals in the world could essentially bankroll all of us out of this crisis if they wished and still have plenty of money left over for themselves. Yet we are reliant on our governments to bail us out which ultimately means our taxes in the future will be paying the national debts we are currently incurring. The rich are hoarding their billions and the government is giving them more. I guess it all goes back to corporate money controlling our politicians, this must be stopped, removing big money from politics isn’t about being conservative or progressive, it is about restoring democracy and building a more just, fair and equal society. It is also necessary to have well informed and educated people for democracy to thrive and this crisis has identified that this is also an area we need to address for the good of us all. Anyway, I digress, I’ll explore these thoughts and ideas in a future blog (and hopefully in a book one day). I hope this crisis inspires many of us to think and reflect on our world and how we can strive for a better future for us all, which would be awesome.

Our crisis also reminds us that our earth is sick and it could be argued we are now sick as our home is sick. I’ve also read that the coronavirus could be regarded as the Earths vaccine, since its outbreak air pollution has improved, particularly over China and Europe, and water quality has improved as seen in Venice. Maybe we, humanity, are the virus we should be most afraid of, behaving like a cancer on the earth as per our prevailing ideology. Perhaps our crisis will facilitate the biggest thing our country and the world will need over the coming 12-18 months, that is healing. At present our approach does not accommodate all life, we are seeing a mass extinction due to our actions. We all deserve to live life. We can see that humanity doesn’t work well if it doesn’t look out for itself. Our First Nations people know all about this as they have been listening and paying attention to the natural order of things for some 100,000 years. They know we can’t act in a manner that is above the lore of the land and this is a lesson for us all. Now is a time to think at a systems level, of how we can become a nation, and a humanity, that is premised on giving priority to care for all human beings as well as the natural world on which we all depend.

So ultimately, perhaps we should consider this crisis as not so much a disaster but a great correction, an opportunity to reassess and improve, a time of reflection and understanding, a time to learn from mistakes and start a new cycle of living. To understand that this type of situation has happened before and will happen again, this is the cycle of life. Many previous generations have faced similar crises and come out the other end stronger and better and I see no reason we shouldn’t either.

I am confident we can collectively strive for a better world. I have witnessed and heard of many great examples of generosity, kindness and community spirit. we also saw much of this generosity of spirit when we were experiencing the bushfire emergency. So while we understandably still have much negativity and anxiety to deal with, my reflections on our crisis has also resulted in an overwhelming sense of gratitude, pride and confidence. I’ll start with gratitude.

I am one of the lucky ones. I still have a job. I am eternally grateful and extremely privileged to be in the situation I am and this is not something I take for granted.

I am also very grateful for the other people who are still working, namely those in health care, aged care, education, emergency services, supermarkets and the farmers providing us with food. I hope that after all this we start to regard our health care workers and teachers with much higher regard, much higher than sportspeople and celebrities which isn’t the case now which to me is another current distortion of our values.

Once this crisis is all done and dusted I will be grateful for the hospitality staff ensuring I have an enjoyable meal or night out, the massage therapist soothing my muscles, the person at the cinema checking my ticket or the artists performing on stage. All these people are doing it much harder than me at the moment and my heart goes out to them.

I am proud and confident in our health care workers who are facing the brunt of this crisis. My admiration and respect for these people has no end. I am also proud of the people I work with and how they are responding to the ever changing environment that is COViD-19.

I am also confident that we can open our minds to a new sustainable and prosperous future, we have to for the sake of our continued existence on earth. We can develop our equanimity and adopt a way of life that causes the least amount of physical, emotional and psychological harm to ourselves, others and the world around us. If we are just kind to each other, ideals such as equality, justice and fairness would become irrelevant as they would just happen.

One more take away from our crisis is I will never take for granted a handshake or a hug again. I look forward to the day I can again greet someone with a handshake and whilst I have never been a great one for hugging, I think after this crisis that might change. I also look forward to having a renewed focus on fellowship with others and to enjoy my friendships.

Let’s use this crisis as an opportunity to learn – to focus on the core values we all should live by; humility, kindness, service and wisdom. Let’s remember that kindness, patience, love, enthusiasm, and a positive attitude are also contagious.

Let us not forget to take a mental break if we feel the need. Sometimes it is best to step back from everything to gain clarity and build resilience for the next challenge ahead.

So to close this blog, I will leave you with these words from Kitty O’Meara, which was shared on the Everyday Buddhism Facebook page …

“And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal. And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.”