AN OPPORTUNITY IN DISGUISE
“Here is the life you have tried to throw away. Here is your second chance. Here is the destiny you have tried to shake off by inventing a hundred false roles, a hundred false identities for yourself. It will look at first like disaster, but is really good fortune in disguise, since fate too knows how to follow your evasions through a hundred forms ofits own. Now you will become at last the one you intended to be.”
The threats of a worldwide pandemic has made us change our behaviour in ways the increasingly dangerous climate crisis so far has failed to. It feels like we are put to test.
I anxiously await.
Of course, I do not rejoice that people get sick and that some even will die in a worldwide pandemic. But haven't we all been waiting for something to happen? Somebody tell to us that the party is over? We were unable to finish it ourselves, despite the fact that mother earth has given us signals for a long time now.
Leaders all over the world have initiated major comprehensive measures. Measures that are far more drastic than any initative politicians (with ambitions of re-election) ever have dared to propose. Yet, people obey effectively and without great protests.
The world as we know it will change. "Business as usual" is no longer an option. This will have enormous consequences for the world economy as well as for individuals. After years of over consumotion, this may be the beginning of our consumer detoxification.
let The power of fear be the power to heal
The recent events have proven that humans have the ability to change quickly, but only if the threat feels close enough. That a virus, which for most people will lead to a mild disease, is perceived as a greater threat than crises such as the mass deaths of animals and insects, plastic pollution of the oceans, the melting of the poles, and the distruction of the rainforests, is to me a great paradox . These are ALL crises, which individually and to an even greater extent, together will lead to far greater consequences in the future. Since the changes seams to affect us gradually, and in the first instance others than ourselves, it does not feel as acute. Therefore, we obviously have not been able to agree on the necessary steps needed to do something about it.
We needed a virus.
A pandemic is severe and many are understandably afraid. But fear is a strong driving force and instead of fighting over the food supplyes in the supermarket (I guess it is not only in Norway people do that?) we can use that power to create lasting changes. We can choose to look at this as an opportunity. An opportunity to show that it is possible to live simpler, slower, closer to and with more respect for the nature, more rooted in one's own country and one's own soil. It will not necessarily give poorer quality of life. Maybe rather the opposite?
If we work to reestablish the balance, start giving back to the nature who we so mercilessly have reaped from for so many years, we can limit the extent of harm and perhaps curb some future consequences.
The party got a sudden stop. Let's seize this opportunity to start the cleanup. Concrete actions can reduce the anxiety and feeling of powerlessness. Maybe many will find that they also come closer to themselves during this period?
