Our immune systems go all out for us–and will fight what’s real or what’s not real, according to our personal and collective operations.
What do we know is true and how do we know it?
Which statistics are pointing to useful information and reality that pertains to our actual well-being and safety?
Some people are certain that this is the most fatal thing on the planet while others don’t seem to be affected at all— roaming the streets, parks, and stores, while still others are certain that it’s all a big political and economic scandal.
What if none of us really knows the truth?
After all, people are dying, while many others could be carriers without even knowing it, meanwhile the statistics could be inaccurate and conflicting, or we could be drawing conclusions from statistics that don’t match up with what actually is happening.
Here’s a statistic I can’t get out of my head: the number of world deaths from COVID 19 at this time is almost the same as the number of deaths each year in the US from cigarette smoking. That’s the one that really gets me. We each have one that gets us… why is that? Mine has no effect on the next person, while theirs seems irrelevant to me. Again, it makes me question— what if no one really knows the truth or the answer, and we just need to soften, trust, be careful, slow down, and take the next steps?
Is it helping us to argue about it, or let it divide us even more? How is it that each person so strongly feels right about what is real? Everyone seems to genuinely feel certain that they are right.
What if we each stopped a moment, and realized that maybe none of us know the truth? What if no one is wrong?
What if it turns out that whatever is true, it’s been beneficial to slow down and stay home for a bit?
What if it’s true, that while some people have died, the actual fatality rate is not very high, and that for now, it’s just best to lay low, tend some things that need tending, and be grateful that fellow humans are working on a vaccine?
What if we don’t like staying home, but right now that’s just what we’re going to do to play it safe, in case it’s true that slowing down is what’s needed to get this under control?
What if it is a big political scandal, but we are still ok, and our government is taking measures to stabilize us economically, in the best way that it can?
What if this is the worst pandemic ever (is it? I certainly prefer to be here now than part of any plague in history), yet we are still more comfortable and safe than 99% of humanity on the planet now and since ALL TIME, living in the comforts of modern day shelter, hot water, clean water, power, modern medicine, and food supply?
How does our individual “stance” on the situation benefit us, and where is it coming from?
After much emotional swirl, I decided to take the stance “I don’t know what’s true,” and instead of speculating in fear and anxiety, fighting, insisting, or suspecting, I decided to get out of the fighting ring. See what needs doing and creating at this time. Enjoy working from home.
Ironically, the choice to stop the internal fight actually benefits the immune system.
I’m open to the possibility that our health, environment, education system, culture, community, country, and economy rise again fresh and new, like after a forest fire, or a Phoenix rising. Where big and small business, schools, and innovation will be reborn in a new, updated, and more sustainable way. After all, it’s possible, maybe it’s even more likely than not.
I don’t believe we need to know how or what that’s going to look like, but at this point, to hold that vision as a beacon of light and possibility is what I’m going to move toward, and where I’m going to spend my attention and energy.
