22 Apr The Silver Lining of COVID-19

Let me start by saying this is not a post that condones neither the death-toll, unease or blatant destruction that COVID-19 is bringing to a lot of people’s lives. The situation without a doubt, sucks royally. This post aims to show the positive, or silver lining (at least in my opinion) that this pandemic has brought too.

On to the brass tax of why you’re here – the silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic. As it hit worldwide I was fearful at first for my job. Having just started a couple months back I figured the pandemic might cause me to lose my job. Fortunately, the company has provided us with the means to work from home and kept me on – and up until today this has gone swimmingly. Despite me being more of a face to face person rather than sitting behind the screen working on spreadsheets and PowerPoint slides I do feel lucky. Lucky to wake up daily and spend time with my soulmate the entire day.

How do we pass the time outside of work? Well, if we’re not having a NERF battle to decide who is cooking – or playing Tetris for who is taking out the garbage, we are having awesome and meaningful conversations, exchanging ideas, reading and a lot more. One of the things we did is create a list of books we want to read during the lockdown. The list is long but we are progressing well.

The Booklist

One of the books I finished reading recently has me thinking. The book is from author Christopher Ryan and it’s called “Civilized to Death – the price of progress”. The book in itself is a real page-turner through and through. However, one passage in chapter 9 stands out for me, especially during this time. Ryan starts to discuss a documentary called “Insect Tribe” where the filmmaker Jonnie Hughes lives amongst this tribe in Papua New Guinea. At the end of filming the tribesmen request to visit the home country of Hughes and the production agreed, paid for their trip, and housed them with a caring family courtesy of a man called Mark.

During their stay, there were a couple of things they thought were odd, mainly the fact that Mark spent most of his time away from home and his family working to pay for said home. But all the while missing out on enjoying it with his family. The tribesmen witnessed a man getting up every morning, picking up his bag for work, leaving and returning home in the evening. They had difficulty grasping our modern society’s decision to choose work disproportionally over leisure and family time, because in their society the community works together to get the essential works out of the way so there is more time free to spend on more enjoyable and soul-fulfilling things. They explained, that when there’s a house needed the tribe would come together and build the house for the new family. No mortgages, no down payments nothing.

So, when they left the modern world there was only one thing that impressed them enough to take back home. Feathers to improve the stability of their arrows’ flight for better hunting. Once they were gone, both Mark and Jonnie were left with envy for the tribesmen and what their society had achieved. They got to spend time with their loved ones and enjoy life whilst they had to work day in and day out, from paycheck to paycheck to make due or meet some imposed societal status-quo.

Took a bit of a detour there, in the hope to bring some context. So here it is, the silver lining during the COVID pandemic. As a society, we spend so much of our lives working, that we hardly have the time to spend it on the things we enjoy and with the people we love, until now.

The blessing in disguise is that due to the crisis and it’s regulations we get to do the one thing that we should be doing in life. Fuck about, and enjoy life with our loved ones! And if for any reason you are alone now or far away from your loved ones, technology has allowed us to connect through Facetime, WhatsApp, and other means. This is a perfect opportunity to pick up friendships that have watered down or strengthen existing relations. Or do as my brothers who have started families and are now able to spend time with their wife and kids, watching those buggers (the kids not the wife) grow up right in front of them instead of missing out.

Knowing full well that this is not the experience that everyone has, if you’re out there and lonely, drop me a line and we’ll have a virtual coffee any time (outside of my sleepy time of course).

If you do decide to see the upside, start by picking up a couple of things you would love to do if you had more time. Teach your kids something new, learn how to draw, makeup stories and write them down, get creative, make plans for travel (for when this thing is over), learn how to cook a flan, redecorate your house or do all of the above – time is finally on your side and literally so are the rules. Spend time to reconnect with your partner like, getting busy on the sack or picking up those long conversations you used to have but didn’t have the energy lately after work. I already have my plans written out for the upcoming weeks and it gives a great sense of purpose and satisfaction, I hope you got the stones to start something too.

I know there is a significant gap between how tribes used to live in the past and how we live today in the modern world, but we have been given a rare chance to taste what they so fondly protected. So, I challenge you to seize the day because boy it feels good to do what you love and spend time with the ones you love.