Power of Humanity in times like these.

Hope is the Silver lining.

Every morning we wake up to dire stories on the increasing number of cases and even more deaths. I find myself sifting through pages of news of worry, panic, and hopelessness. I find myself praying, wishing that the curve has magically reduced, or even sometimes may be that this whole thing is a bad dream.

We are looking for a solution quickly because we are all in lockdown, worried about who is going to get affected next, are we unknown carriers, will we somehow spread it to those who are vulnerable, questions about everyday workers and their plight, stock market crashes, will the economy survive. Will “social distancing” currently being practiced be effective in minimizing the curve. How long will it take before the results start showing?

There is no doubt that the virus has brought about a completely new phase of thinking in each of our lives — we are coming up with ingenious ways of stocking up supplies, some of us are hoarding toilet paper like they are cryptocurrencies. Some of us are defiant and in denial of the whole lockdown situation, questioning the idea of social distancing and end up partying at the beach. Different sides of humanity, each story portraying the worst side in us in terms of fear, panic, worry, wanting to grab everything around us, selfishness and carelessness and even casualness. Never did I imagine I would be reading news articles on “how successfully people are managing to buy toilet paper.” Nothing about that story gives me hope.

What gives me hope is when I see how we, despite the panic, worry and anxiety, are coming together as a race in identifying what can we do better. It gives me the other side of the otherwise cynical picture that is being painted on various sources, the picture that people are not selfish, careless, mean and casual.

Rebecca Solnit, author of A Paradise Built in Hell (there could not have been a more appropriate timing to have run into this book) says “Disaster doesn’t sort us out by preferences; it drags us into emergencies that require we act, and act altruistically, bravely, and with initiative in order to survive or save the neighbors, no matter how we vote or what we do for a living.”

The way we are all responding and reacting shows that the human race is resourceful, generous, kind, thoughtful and altruistic always willing to lend a helping hand. No matter where we are. And this is what gives me hope and the courage that we will fight it out.

There is plenty of proof that this is already happening at a huge scale throughout the world as we all come together united in fighting this. We need to shift our attention to that because that is what gives courage and provides a silver lining, hope. And from hope comes a natural desire to find a solution, a way out, a reminder to work towards the “light that is at the end of the tunnel”, however long or short the journey may be.

She also says — “Hope just means another world might be possible, not promised, not guaranteed. Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope.”

One of my favorite quotes from my all-time favorite movie Shawshank Redemption(what better time than now to binge watch!!) — “Remember, Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies,” serves as a reminder to each of us as we go dragging ourselves through these testing times, one step at a time.

We need to applaud all the action that has been generated out of this situation, now more so than ever.

Right from helping shop for groceries, to calling people to check in on them, to making sure we “connect and socialize” with others virtually when we on a normal day would have been preoccupied with our lives looking into our laptops or mobile phones.

Now we are doing the same, but either for a video call with friends and family or figuring out ways we can care for them and ourselves and getting creative about it. The true spirit of human connection, especially in this day of technology when we spend more time with machines than with people, comes up to the surface. Maybe this is what nature wants us to pause and learn?

Simple practices that we have been told repeatedly enhances human life —

1. gratitude and counting our blessings; prayer and surrender
2. lending a helping hand; random acts of kindness; caring for others
3. self-care; working on our hobby
4. mindfulness & awareness
5. spending time in nature; going out for walks
6. spending quality time and connecting more with loved ones
7. figuring out how what we can do to help someone, make our community, society, our world a better place

Despite knowing that these things enhance our lives, how many of us find time or energy or sometimes even the inclination to practice them daily?

I know I need a reminder or a strong push sometimes to practice many of the above. In the last few days alone, everyone I have spoken to (including myself) has mentioned that I am just counting my blessings and hanging in there. Even on social media, posts on gratitude, togetherness has gone up tremendously.

We probably needed a lockdown to come to free us from our mundane lives, running after one thing after the other, mongering for things, forgetting to live and spend “quality time” with each other, to take a break and spend time with nature, devour books and meaningful content. This downtime brings back to the surface, insights into human nature that have been obscured for many days. Seldom do we get a chance to experience the connectedness and genuine care and concern for one another that strongly prevails in a community.

Everyday, looking at the selfless service that health care officials in various countries and hospitals across the globe, looking at them giving their best, trying hard to hold their fort together makes me think what is the tiniest bit I can do? Putting their lives in danger, they are not only managing the situation at hand, but are also coming up with ideas on how to help prevent the spread, flatten the curve and find a cure. They are the real stalwarts and heroes.

Various incidents from around the world have moved my heart and played a part in instilling hope and courage, giving me a rope to hold onto when fear or helplessness grips me, leading me to think “what can I do?” and thereby act.

Stories of individuals like Rebecca Mehra helping an elderly couple buy their groceries, to communities in Europe expressing solidarity and comfort in the form of music, people in India coming together to display support and applaud the service of those who continue to provide services round the clock to keep things safe, to school leaders in the US making sure that even though schools are closed the 30 million children dependent on schools for meals get their food are all some examples. Humanitarian organizations like the Art of Living are reaching out to help with practices that help ease tension and panic, conducting global and community meditation sessions to help us wade through these stressful times.

Several individuals and organizations have come up together to fund and help small businesses and individuals whose daily lives have been affected. Major recreation and entertainment companies have stepped forward to provide their services for free that would have normally been expensive are some other examples.

Various technology giants have come together in multiple different aspects, putting their minds together implementing ideas on predicting and minimizing the ever-rising spread. They have also opened up a wide range of services such as free video conferencing services, combating fake news spread about COVID-19, building a pilot website that determines whether you should get tested or not and manufacturing ventilators.

People are ever so ready to help with anything and everything.

Of course, this list is a small subset of the altruism and resourcefulness that is exhibited by each individual and in the community. This action of everyone putting up their best foot forward has created a tremendous ripple effect, which gives me hope that we will see through to the end of the tunnel.

When my husband and I go out on walks in the evenings, adhering to the 6 feet distance rule, people in my community are ever so ready to smile, and ask “how are you guys doing? Hanging in there ok?” I see people sitting outside their homes offering to talk to anyone who is passing by, and more surprisingly people are stopping by to chat. We did too. My neighbor even said, “I am taken back to the 80s when it used to be like this. People wanted to stop by and connect.” It has taken us 30 years and a virus to probably remind us of the importance of connection, the bond that runs through us all humans.

While 3 weeks back I had been postponing calling up friends and family, I am now frantically reaching out to everyone I care about to make sure they are ok, asking whether they need anything, telling them to wash their hands with hot water and soap (I also had my father pulling my leg by chiding me — “you are teaching me all those things again that I taught you when you were a kid” ☺.)

We have come together, united in a short period, caring for others and ourselves, going above and beyond, displaying the true nature of human spirit.

In my mind, everyone is playing a role, even meme creators who somehow manage to lighten the mood, though not the seriousness of the situation with funny snippets and videos with their sense of creativity, for which I am grateful.

Charles E Fritz, an American Scientist who pioneered disaster research says — “Disasters provide a temporary liberation from the worries, inhibitions and anxieties associated with the past and future because they force people to concentrate their full attention on immediate moment-to-moment, day-to-day needs within the context of present realities.”

We are being offered a chance to attain this liberation. We need to grab onto it and hold onto it. And more importantly, act on it.

Although these are scary times, and things look dire and grey, and they are probably going to get worse before getting better, we all have major lessons from this, major learnings that we need to incorporate and implement towards some of the pressing problems that we face as a world. Climate change, endangerment of animals leading to their extinction and becoming more conscious of our ecological footprint are some of the big ones that come to my mind immediately.

Several times when we read what is happening in different parts of the world, even though we empathize, we are quick to dismiss it with a prayer and maybe some form of action. It made me think for a while, we keep talking about glaciers receding, increased CO2 concentration, wild animals becoming endangered or extinct as though it is happening somewhere else and living under the false impression that it will not affect us.

Just this January, in the Australian wildfires, close to 1.2 billion animals perished, millions of hectares of land were burnt, hundreds of people were affected. We felt really bad about it, but before we could comprehend the staggering numbers, COVID-19 dawned on us. COVID19 and its spread is just a message telling that it does not take too long for things to go from bad to worse. Even one day later changes the equation significantly. Instead of reacting, we need to proactively address the causes of these events and figure out a plan of action that we can execute once things get better.

I do not know what will happen tomorrow, I do not have many of the answers, do not know many of the questions. I am hoping, things get better soon, and when they do, we need to act.

Nature has given us this downtime to pause, reflect and come up with a plan collectively, globally, to address some of the most pressing universal challenges we face. Just because it isn’t prevalent where we live or what we do does not mean that someone else will take care of it. It is our responsibility, every single one of us to help in combating and finding a way through these challenging times and help come up with a plan of action.

Rebecca summarizes it aptly — “The possibility of paradise hovers on the cusp of coming into being, so much so that it takes powerful forces to keep such a paradise at bay. If paradise now arises in hell, it’s because in the suspension of the usual order and the failure of most systems, we are free to live and act another way.”

Also, in the meantime, it’s good to remind ourselves from time to time, we human beings are amazing. Kudos to the human race and spirit.