For a society, a world, that has defined merit and value through endless productivity and consumption; the world has stopped for but a few weeks.
Rest, silence and solitude in the place of the chaos that had become modern society. With the endless options and choices behind us. We have been ordered to retreat home and to remove all public options.
At first, the retreat was a welcome relief from the everyday demands of one’s life. The 9 to 5 demands of performance in a professional realm. The endless hobbies, community organizations and self-development work we had crammed into our evenings. A small part of us sighed in relief that we wouldn’t need to attend any of it and that we would be granted the opportunity to do nothing at all.
The past 30 years of my life has been rushing about in the shadow of two migrated ambitious souls. The struggles to pave a way and to succeed. By four I was standing by the side walk of our apartment complex waiting for a bus to my 9am class.
By 21 I was graduating from an undergraduate institution. Canada's oldest. University College at University of Toronto with a humanities degree. It had left a bitter taste in my mouth of the state of the world that I had inherited. And young I aspired to make a social impact in some way or form.
Several flights, fellowships and a graduate degree later; the unprecedented global system shut down we find ourselves in has convinced me that I’m not the only one who is tired. And just needs a break. From the endless options of flights out of the country, the restaurants, bars and social engagements. None of it has allowed for the focus and determination that is required for true change to unfold. Change that could unfold from the comforts of our homes.
Perhaps if we look deep within we’ve all been just wanting to be with ourselves for a bit. I keep a picture of myself from childhood on my office desk. These days I am trying my best to live for her. Even if that means giving her the gift of complete silence from anyone else’s demands. To move at her pace and with her guidance. To allow her to direct the way.
If there’s anything social isolation should allow you to walk away with is but the courage to be on one’s own, to find joy in solitude and to not become dependent of the external world to find happiness. Happiness is inherent.
Perhaps we will walk out of this realizing that it is not our interaction with humanity that brings us joy, but rather our inherent existence itself. Maybe it will allow us to realize that everything we need, we already have.
For after everything is given up and let go; what is left? What lives have we begun to live in private? What new world is now possible?
Most of us have sat through summer holidays and march breaks before. I’m sure global leaders are just at home, chatting with other global leaders around the world. They’re peacefully trying to figure out some complicated world challenges. Let’s be grateful they’ve realized that bombs and violence won’t resolve the problems of our time. Our elders sat through cold wars, migrated from open warfare. And here we are sitting in the comforts of our homes, observing the ending of the industrial era. The economy as we have known it is transforming, decaying maybe even dying.
We sit in our homes watching what collapses and what is born in its place. I am doing my best to adapt and surrender. I am predicting that this pandemic might just be the rise of fear which will dissipate – for when this changes – and it will change; the only constant is change. We might find that this is exactly what we all needed. A little time out at home with the basic things we need for day to day survival; provided only the most essential things – food and healthcare. And perhaps from being enforced to be apart we might come back to this thing called co-existence with a whole new sense of appreciation.
