The Truth in the times of COVID-19 Crisis — Taking Inspiration from Shakespeare and Usain Bolt

11 min readJul 3, 2020

Ramanathan S Manavasi aka M.R. Subramanian

Life and Identity, Death and Dignity

Tomorrow always comes :

2020 is a year filled with one intense aspect after another. You likely feel confused, overwhelmed, worn-out, frustrated, and exhausted after the last few months. You must have read tons of articles regarding the various aspects of the pandemic for the last 5 or 6 months. The topics dealing with washing, masks, vaccine, life style choices, self quarantine, physical distancing, new normal, economic damage, working from home etc., were discussed in various media. Eminent writers have dealt with the various myths, tipping point, blacks swan event etc., concerning the virus. In the Coronavirus season, I intend to pick on two widely accepted truisms in the Indian context. The first, tomorrow never comes. And the second, famously attributed to economist John Maynard Keynes : In the long run, we are all dead.

The present mood is so despondent that optimism carries the risk of being called insensitive. We all had to face the nastiest virus in two generations. It is travelling the world without passport or visa, and often it travels on other people’s tickets. A very, very vast majority, at least about 98 per cent of those infected, if not more, under any circumstances, will live through it. If that be the case we envisage, how can we say Tomorrow never comes. Let us say, instead, tomorrow always comes.

Let us consider the aphorism of Keynes now : Sure as hell, in the long run, we are all dead. But two questions arise. What do we do with the time we have got meanwhile? Just wait to be dead eventually? Most living beings are never known to live like that, looking forward to death. Second question then: Who decides how long — or short — is that ‘long run’? There are as many estimates, therefore, as real epidemiologists, pop-epidemiologists, and economists or snake-oil traders pretending to be epidemiologists.

It is tempting to say as usual: That the truth must lie somewhere in between the two. But it does not. Because, this presumes we, the 1.36 billion people of India, will do nothing to influence our own collective and individual fates. If there is one thing we can say with certainty about our chaotic country, it’s that it is always changing. It never freezes. The concise answer, delivered with charity in mind and clarity in view, is that while in the long run we will all be dead, we will not be waiting, but doing something meanwhile to stretch that ‘run’. Just that we need to make use of today to build ourselves a better tomorrow. Maybe closing some other dubious and fixable health issues and life style choices and consuming patterns. Because, remember, tomorrow always comes.

Life and Identity:

Bourne films are a series of American action thriller films based on the character Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), a CIA assassin suffering from dissociative amnesia who must figure out who he is created by author Robert Ludlum.

All three of Ludlum’s novels were adapted for the screen, featuring Matt Damon as the title character in each. The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) The Bourne Legacy (2012) and and Jason Bourne (2016). I remember vividly how I have enjoyed the first three movies in the USA movie theaters with curiosity and vigour.

Inside the Zurich Community Bank, Bourne writes down a 13-digit number on a piece of paper and he passes the finger identification system. He examines the metal lock box inside the bank’s walk-in safe. There’s nothing unusual inside. A bunch of markers, a flashlight, contact lenses, a watch, a credit card, his vaccination record, a USB stick. His eyes quickly scan the contents, resting on one item almost instantly: his passport. He opens it and sits down in the small cabin chair. He utters: “My name is Jason Bourne.”

What is most fascinating about the entire bank scene is that it manages to fill an eternity of five minutes of on-screen time with a mere nine lines of dialogue. It’s a thread that continues throughout the movie. The script is less than 7,500 words, whereas the average screenplay clocks in at almost twice that.

The story of Jason Bourne is the fictional equivalent of looking into a mirror for the first time in months: you don’t need words, you need context. Who’s that person? Why are they the way they are? Life is like that. We are busy running around, checking items off lists, working towards some distant goal, and before we know it, we have changed beyond recognition. We the multitude are mired and fossilized in the chains of name and form to keep up our identity.

Death and Dignity :

When old people die, the deep reason behind it is that the moment they start getting old, they start wishing for death. Young people don’t usually die, and the basic reason behind it is not their youth, the reason is that they don’t think about dying. Since the Corona virus is ‘novel’, no one, king or commoner, is immune to it. It treats all human beings fairly, and has not spared even the famous and the powerful. When people die due to Corona virus, they are denied even dignity in death here in India. COVID-19 dead are being denied opportunity for decent cremation in various cities, owing to stiff and vociferous resistance by people residing near the cremation grounds. Why dead bodies do not spread novel coronavirus? The virus is like a pen drive. The pen drive may contain huge data for storage, transport, copying and visualization. But none of that can be done unless the USB connector docks onto the port of a computer. This glaring analogy must be understood by all concerned. Human remains only pose a substantial risk to health in a few special cases, such as deaths from cholera or hemorrhagic fevers.

Death is less of a physical phenomenon and more of a psychological one. Hindu scriptures have called this maya, hypnosis. Whatsoever you are doing, whatsoever you are, whatsoever your mental state, is all your hypnosis. If you are happy, if you are unhappy, it is all your hypnosis, but your unawareness of it makes it very difficult for you to change it.

As Deepak Chopra says in his 90th Book “Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential” the COVID virus has put everyday life in peril for countless people, but it has actually risen the level of self-sacrifice, service, sharing, cooperating for the common good, laying down political antagonisms, seeking a global solution, and reflecting upon what really matters. Those are all meta qualities; they are perfect examples of going beyond. The fact that we can see a future past the devastation of the pandemic is a meta trait of huge importance. We are not human without being metahuman. For me, this is the lasting lesson and the deeper meaning to be taken away from a terrible time.

Niklas Goke says in his beautiful and insightful article “You Don’t Need An Identity To Have A Life” : Through four languages, multiple break-ins, close quarters combat, wide range shooting, and a car chase, Jason Bourne has proven situational awareness is his strength. And in that, you can’t afford to have a rusty identity. Beggar or bellboy, detective or assassin, he must switch between these characters from one minute to the next. For him, it’s a matter of life and death. For us it may not be, but that’s what real antifragility looks like. In order for the system to grow from disorder, parts must be allowed to break, fast and often.

Out of all human ideas, identity might be the most overrated and, in fact, the most dangerous. It’s as addictive as other figurative drugs, like money, status, power, but you don’t have to get a hold of it first. It’s ever-present, already in your grasp, always on top of your mind. And yet, every time you enter a room full of strangers, you get to reinvent yourself. You can choose to be fluid. Limitless. People talk about depression all the time in the context of the pandemic. Yes, so much uncertainty, so much vigilance, so much change in the life style habits, quarantine fatigue and Physical Distance (Social Distance is not the proper word). It is natural to feel overwhelmed, frustrated and exhausted on a daily basis. As Jeff Foster says “You should think of the word depressed as ‘deep rest.’ Deep. Rest. Your body needs to be depressed. It needs deep rest from the character that you have been trying to play.” Jeff Foster, with humour and compassion, speaks simply and directly about non-duality, emotional healing and awakening… and finding the sacred in the ordinary.

Shakespeare — How he survived four plague years in his life time and became a genius:

Let us visualize the conditions that confronted every person on a daily basis during the lifetime of Shakespeare. What feels horribly abnormal to us was routinely normal for him and every member of the human race in the 16th century (except for the empty streets). In Shakespeare’s lifetime, there were four plague years, 1582, 1592, 1603, and 1607, when London, including its theaters, shut down because of the disease. But if you put Shakespeare and the plague together, something mysterious emerges. Despite every threat of disease and death, crime, poverty, political oppression, and religious fanaticism not to mention widespread illiteracy, no public sanitation, and no police force, these horrendous circumstances didn’t wipe out creativity, discovery, love, compassion, and a vision of a higher ideals. Shakespeare was a meta-genius, but everyday people are just as meta in their own way. Parents sacrifice for their children, even die for them, because they go beyond their own selfish needs. Any creative hobby is meta, because it has nothing to do with surviving.

Usain St. Leo Bolt- How he improved his athletic ability :

Usain St. Leo Bolt is an eight-time Olympic gold medalist. Known as ‘lightning bolt’, he is regarded as the fastest sprinter on Earth. Though retired, he is considered one of the greatest sprinters because his timings have still remained unbeaten.

He was born in Sherwood, Jamaica to a couple running a grocery store. He had a humble beginning but he had a love for sports. He started playing cricket early but his coach noticed he could run fast and told him to try athletics. Had he not chosen to be a sprinter, he would have been a fast bowler.

Bolt grew up with Scoliosis which is an abnormal curvature of his spine. His right leg is an inch shorter than his left. However, he worked a Little Extra with Pablo McNeil, former Olympian, and Dwayne Jarrett to improve his athletic ability. They trained him to play an excellent game and his records have remained unbeaten even today.

We cannot afford to go back to the old way of doing things. The individuals and corporations that most aggressively adapt and extend new ways of operating will turn this crisis to their advantage. Rapid innovation. Decisions made fast. Bureaucracy bypassed. Urgent needs tackled. Unimportant tasks shelved. The example of Usain Bolt should motivate us all.

I am beholden to Shekar Gupta, the journalist, author and founder of The Print for the borrowed brilliance from his blog. I am indebted to the insights from Niklas Goke, Jeff Foster and Deepak Chopra for inclusion in this article. Thanks for your patient reading. Your constructive comments and worthwhile criticisms are welcome. Some of my friends and well wishers accuse me of being too lush and exuberant in my writings. They want me to use shorter sentences and fewer adjectives. To them I say: It is not going to happen. I have feelings similar to those of best-selling author Oliver Sacks, who the New York Times called, “one of the great clinical writers of the 20th century.” Sacks once said, “I never use one adjective if six seem to me better and, in their cumulative effect, more incisive. I am haunted by the density of reality and try to capture this with ‘thick description.” I would request you all to call on your imagination to look for previously unguessed and unexpected ways to reinvent togetherness and tenderness in the coming years.