The Days of Lockdown – week 7

30 April 2020: Challenges

We had the great weather. We had the King’s birthday. We have a school holiday. Normally, none of these things would be a big deal. In our new reality, each of these events test our mettle, our stamina, our resolve, our sense of responsibility, our will to self-denial. Each represent a choice, a challenge. Will we do the right thing, i.e. stay (close to) home and keep our distance? How long will we be able keep this up? When will we start to crumble? 

Our self-control is challenged in many ways: not only do we have to stop ourselves from hugging each other, we must also stop ourselves from metaphorically beating others over the head when we disagree on how to handle this crisis. The online vitriol and paranoia are spreading faster than Covid19 and could be equally fatal. How do we find one another when we are on opposite sides? We are living in the quietest time of our lives, yet it remains hard to listen. 

To pass the time, we have invented ‘challenges’ on social media: “for 10 days, post a picture of: a book that meant a lot to you; a record that shaped your musical taste; a photo of yourself as a performer when you felt empowered. No explanations, just 10 pictures.” No explanation? What’s the point of that? I want to know why that book/record/performance meant so much. Surely, most of us have seas of time now to tell and read these stories? Isn’t this the perfect period to get to know ourselves and each other better? Or is social distancing slowly turning into emotional distancing? Are we crumbling as human beings?

Source: Gaia.com

And then there are the challenges of the future. What will we do when we go back to ‘normal’, if that even exists? The Netherlands may well reach its climate goals for this year, if the lockdown goes on a while longer. That sounds like great news, but actually shows how much is needed to reach those goals: the whole country on standstill for months. What will we do about all the people who lost their jobs? Will we finally instate a universal basic income, or will we start blaming the unemployed again after a while for being ‘lazy’ or ‘unmotivated’, as we always do. Will we bail out companies that siphon off their cash to their billionaire shareholders in offshore tax havens?

It seems to me we have this one chance. If we mess it up, we won’t get a second. The ultimate challenge for humankind to show its true spirit. As I said, it is hard for people to listen, but I feel this is our way forward. Listen to ourselves - not our puny egos, but our essence; listen to each other, the stories of people close and far and really feel them; listen to the experts, instead of assuming we are all miraculously all-knowing; listen to the heartbeat of the earth and try to align ourselves with that pulse. 

We humans are made of stories. We talk about events in our lives as if they have a logical sequence, a purpose, a conclusion. In reality, they seldom do. So, let’s write a new story: of how humanity woke up from its selfish nightmare and saved the planet. Or, better still, let us, like the Aboriginals, sing a brand new world into existence!