The coronavirus lockdowns have disrupted most people’s routines and way of life. The ways and methods of doing business and operating have changed in important and fundamental ways, even in “essential” occupations.

With the basic structure of our lives thus revamped we are in a position to look at the form our lives took before the changes. Much that was forming and informing our lives was unconscious and automatic – taken for granted when we were caught up in our former lives Now that things are different, we can look back at the way our lives were and evaluate them in ways that weren’t possible for us when we were caught up in them.

One of the big things that happened for most of us is that things got a lot quieter. The traffic noise went way down. Most people had probably become inured to the noise and tuned it out. Have you realized, now that it is gone, how intrusive it was before? It’s as if somebody said, “let’s turn it off for a while!” Have you realized how much easier it is to relax without all that hustle and bustle?

We now have time and space to reflect on what we have been doing and why and to decide where we want to go from here as individuals and collectively. The way things were before was, I believe, engineered to keep us busy running here and there so we wouldn’t have the time to talk to each other deeply and to question the form our collective lives were taking and the purpose, or rather, lack of purpose of it all.

I think we were brainwashed to believe that things had to be the way they were. Yet now, with the coronavirus crisis, many of those things which were considered unquestionable before have changed. One prime example is that many businesses would not allow people to work from home before, but now …. If you look around you can see many examples of formerly “unquestionable” practices which have now changed, which means they were never as unchangeable as we had been led to believe.

I think probably, at this point, many people don’t want things to go back to the way they were, even if that were possible. For instance, I’m guessing many people realize now the value of spending time at home with family rather than working sixteen hour days.

It may be too that many are having a hard time with all this new-found free time. It was possible to avoid facing ourselves and our lives while the rat-race was in full swing. In fact, I would say that the avoidance of facing ourselves was the driving force behind the rat-race. While it may be difficult to turn around and take a good look at ourselves, it’s very necessary. I don’t believe we could have gone on much longer in the way we were going before.

Something had to come along and force us, from the outside, to stop what we were doing long enough for there to be a gap so that we could wake up out of the collective madness that has been plunging our world toward destruction. I believe such things come from an intelligence that is far beyond our comprehension. You don’t have to call it God. You could just as well call it Life or the Great Tao or whatever name you choose. The bottom-line is that this virus is perfectly suited to our situation in every possible way. Yes, it brings suffering and loss, but no transformation worthy of the name ever comes while people are in their comfort-zones. As hard as it may be to hear, we are in need of a good dose of suffering to wake us up and get us to pay attention to our real needs and the needs of the planet.

(to be continued)