We’re living through this. This historical event will take up an entire page in high school textbooks, college kids will spend hours researching for a paper about it. Yet, it’s our entire lives right now. Eat sleep drink. Except in a global pandemic. We’re in it. How old are you? Thats how you’ll pinpoint this story in the future. I was only 26. Barely had my life together when the pandemic hit. I missed movies a lot. I missed hanging around people. I looked longingly at distant concert dates and said , “I am so going to that when this thing ends” But the concert dates came and went as live streams and the anticipation to enjoy life with a crowd, of music loving peoplen, evaporated into yet another monotoned day of updates from officials.
What happens after this? Will people change? Will the world change? This pandemic has forced to the surface a kind of truth in people. Like a collective fight or flight reactive choice. I’m right here. I’m stressed. I’m a little lonely. I’m grateful for video chat. But I’m fighting for normalcy. I choose to fight through this thing. Others choices are still their own. Fear brings forth a need to control something. Fearful people fly away from their peace time beliefs in an instant. Tbeir actions scream compliance to avoid that which scares them. They reach for extreme reasons to get back control. “Everyone is going to die!, Stay Home!”. But it’s an impulse to ask for control. A truth of fear.
New actions are not required to alleviate others fear impulse. They want what the main influencer of their life wants. Control. Except they never had it. A Fearful event like this stuns fearful people and reminds them their motivation is fear. And they never had control of anything in life. So they panic.
I have control. That which I can control I do so successfully and when confronted with a fight or flight situation. I keep fighting to keep control of what I can. Which means I’m calm, by which my actions are calm. I’m calmed by the knowledge of risk to my life that has always been there and I’ve made peace with mortality. Those who fly cannot face the true risk factors behind their actions and when they are forced they act exactly how someone who has always feared, has always subscribed to influence over individualism. That’s ok. We’ll all keep kicking through life. I’ll remember how I changed very little during the pandemic and how much I saw change around me
Skills Give Life To Dreams 