A different view of living in our troubled times
It’s a weird time to live. A once in a 100-year event on a global scale. For the young, we may be around to tell future generations about how the world changed during this time. How usually bustling streets are now deserted. How we suffered through our time in isolation. How we feared strangers hiding an invisible enemy.
We’ve been so used to surviving in a world that is running at hyperspeed, to always do more, more, more. Never giving ourselves a moment to ask why we need to do more and not less? We jump from one distraction to another from social media to Netflix. But there’s always this voice in our mind that whispers, “Is this what I want to be doing with my time? And for the next 3 months, 6 months or longer?”.
Henry David Thoreau, an American essayist, poet, and philosopher, lived in Massachusetts during the 1800s. He tired of the ‘fast pace’ and constant chasing of money and business during that era. He decided to move out of the city and into nature. There, he wrote his most popular book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. He tells himself, as much as his readers, “I moved to the woods to live deliberately”.
He built a simple cabin by hand, providing himself with only the bare essentials. He captured what stillness and peace in nature had to offer: the beauty of birds, the gradual browning of leaves, the formation of ice which capped the pond. In his book, he reminds us to not be in such a rush,
“Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”
People will always achieve things in different time frames. Trump became president at 70, Obama 47. Yet they both achieved the same title. Before this worldwide disruption, we likely had plans laid out before us with associated time frames. We had aspirations of titles to gain, accolades to accumulate, but out of nowhere, those plans have likely evaporated. They might be revivable in time or they might fall to the bucket of goals unachieved and we must recreate our new vision. But what does this mean? That you sit back resigned to the fact that what once was will never be. Will you grow old and blame this moment in time for taking your hopes away from you?
The Greeks believed in the role luck played in our lives more than most. The idea of meritocracy wasn’t the backbone of their society. They believed the goddess of Fortuna could lay a hand of blessing upon you one day, and take it away the next. One’s success wasn’t determined by their skill and genius but by the generosity Fortuna saw to gift them with. Here’s the reality, you don’t always get what you want in life. There will always be things in your control (actions, desires, intentions) but everything else is out your control. This doesn’t mean you should whinge, blame, complain or sulk when things don’t go your way, things rarely will.
Instead, we must reevaluate the situation we are in and continue to move ahead with the cards as they have fallen. Marcus Aurelius reminds us,
“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
We must take stock of the current situation and find the silver lining within. I argue that this tragedy will allow us to achieve so many tremendous things:
- Become more present
- Be part of those tiny and important moments of our children’s lives, the ones we miss when we’re at work
- Become a better parent, partner, friend, sibling, son, daughter
- Build deeper relationships with our loved ones
- Rediscover our partner and their desires
- Discover our own
- Use our hands again to craft, build and create
- Embark on creative pursuits we were always “too busy and tired” for
- Spend more time where it matters without the constant commuting
- Learn a new way of remote working
- Take more time for exercise
- Enjoy nature
- Make time for writing or journaling
- Make space for meditation
- Make time for gratitude
No doubt each of us will be suffering in different ways. The Roman Emporer, Marcus Aurelius, offers us an alternative perspective:
“Here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not “This is misfortune,” but “To bear this worthily is good fortune.”
So, what will you do? What will be your silver lining?
For links to other senses, you can find both audio and visual below:
Visual: https://youtu.be/X_7hm--5BRk