Thinking beyond the Covid-19 pandemic

There is bad news and good news.  The bad news is that a gigantic F-5 pandemic storm is coming.   The good news is that after a while the storm will be leave,    it will be sunny and calm again, and, if we played our cards right, we will be stronger than we are now.

Will the storm cause damage?  Yes.    Possibly a lot.   It happens.

[ NOTE - According to the World Health Organization's public meeting just now,  as of 4 PM Greenwich Mean Time, 28-Feb-2020,  it is not yet 100% certain that this pandemic will materialize.

But, the W.H.O. raised their level of concern today from "high" to "very high".

W.H.O. still emphasizes that Covid-19 has been successfully shut down by very aggressive containment efforts in China, Singapore, one country I couldn't hear,  and Vietnam and the 'window of opportunity" is still open for countries experiencing their first case or cases to get it stopped.  It is not yet "a pandemic" in the sense that it is not yet time to abandon containment efforts and move on entirely to mitigation. 23 of the 46 countries with cases have only one case.  As far as W.H.O. is concerned,  we are near the watershed point where this will run out of control worldwide,  but not yet to that point. ]

Can the survivors repair the damage and get on with our lives?  Yes, provided we systematically pay attention to using the pressures of the storm to drive us closer together, not further apart.

Here's an analogy. I know of two families, each of which had a young child die.  In one family the result was anger, depression, conflict, and divorce -- the most common outcome of loss of a child.  In the other family the result was resolve, bonding, and a renewed intense joy in life and each other.

Life is a choice.   Happiness is a choice.  We can pull together or we can pull apart -- it's ours to choose,  but we will surely be pushed to do one or the other by this coming storm.

In reality there will be more periods of sunny weather, and more storms -- possibly some stronger than this one.  Again, if we set our minds and hearts to it, we can end up being made stronger and stronger by that sequence of challenges -- or,  we can end up being devastated.

We can view each other as a source of strength and a resource, or we can view each other as competitors, enemies,   threats.     To a large extent, whatever we pick will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.    People live up to, or down to, expectations.   It works both ways.