Written in the earliest days of the pandemic, but still valid

How to Create a Better Post-COVID-19 Planet Earth

[Update Oct 21, 2020] What thoughtful lessons have we learned from the pandemic for a New Earth?

Rainbow on a rainy day on Oahu’s North Shore — photo by Alan Lew, author, cc-by

Non-Medium subscribers can access this full article here.

This was the first article that I ever wrote on Medium.com — published on March 16, 2020. I updated it on October 21, 2020. And I wrote a retrospective update in March 2021 (linked at bottom).

“Everything has value and purpose. Every moment is a synchronicity.”
- my sankalpa*

WHAT is the potential value and purpose of the current novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic?

1. The pandemic is bringing the entire world together in a shorter period than anything has ever been done before. Governments everywhere are taking precautions and cooperating, to varying degrees, against a shared “enemy”, as they seek to contain the now global outbreak of the Covid-19 virus. They are also struggling to figure out how to manage its economic and social effects and are actively looking to see what may or may not be working around the globe.
2. The pandemic is expanding the global consciousness of individuals. Because of the global brain (aka the “Internet”) people everywhere are sharing in the unfolding of the pandemic and its impacts, including the hysteria of fear. This is creating a shared human experience that has the potential to transcend cultural differences and increase empathy and understanding. This can only be a positive benefit for global connections, oneness, and consciousness.
3. The pandemic is helping humans to better understand their place on the planet. Human exceptionalism makes us think they can control or manage the entire planet. This pandemic event is humbling and reminds us that the greater world we live in (Gaia) is much more creative and diverse than we can really know. Gaia can and will dish up new surprises that will humble us and help us see that we are just one part of a shared larger project that is the entire planet Earth.
4. The pandemic is helping us to understand…