Making Peace With the Coronavirus
The Gift of Connection
There is an underlying narrative in the media that we are at war with the coronavirus. This is not true.
We are vulnerable. Many have died, and many are sick. There are those at home unable to go to work and others who now have no work. In South Africa, we are waiting. The choice, however, is how we wait.
To go to war is to create and foster a sense of separation in your heart. The premise of resentment is not to get mad, but to get even. The trouble is that after you have raised and equipped your war child to unleash it on your enemies, then what?
The human race knows the devastation and division of war. The war story is thoroughly embedded into our language — war on terror, war on drugs, price wars, war games. The irony is that no president has ever talked about the war on climate change or the war on poverty. For these issues, we have no war appetite, so the official response has always been rather toothless. It’s left to the soft-hearted people that care.
I was raised by a nurse, in fact, by a nurse who trained hundreds of other nurses over a forty-year career. We can’t visit her at the moment, because at 68, she’s still making sure infection control procedures are being implemented in hospitals.
Nurses know the value of caring. They have learned to say yes to traumatic events, and see them through.
There is a pensive mood in South Africa. As we wait, we look at graphs and projections, with bated breath, knowing that a significant portion of our country’s people are immune-compromised due to HIV. Aside from the vulnerability of illness, there is the vulnerability of income, as people that live day-to-day start to feel the ripple effects through the economy. There is also thinly veiled, murmuring, fear.
Yes, we need physical distancing, but this is not the same as emotional distancing or financial distancing. In the next weeks, we may need to clean our own houses, mow our own lawns, and continue to pay our gardeners and domestic workers while they stay home. We may need to use less and share more. We may need to deal with the unimaginable. Yet, this is still a don’t know, so we cannot let our fears for the future lead to a breakdown in caring.
The truth is that we are not at war and there are no game-changers because this is not a game. We are being asked by life to expand our nobility, our decency, and our caring on every level. As we wait, it is best to make peace with the coronavirus to recover our resilience, vitality, and connection. It is these qualities that heal the pain. It is our inalienable wholeness and humanness that will see the world through this crisis.
And, if you open your eyes and look around, this heart to heart connection is happening everywhere. Take note of the Italians, Spanish and French singing from their balconies, and the old couples holding hands, as they go out to do their shopping. Let these intimacies quiet your anxiety and open your heart.
