These are not easy times for humanity. We are probably the most privilege and well-off generation of humans to ever inhabit the planet. But, at the same time, we are the first ones to live a shared global experience of the magnitude of this pandemic. The repercussions of what we have lived over the last few months will be felt for years to come and they will put humanity to the test. Only those who are willing to adapt to the new circumstances will have a better chance of coping with the new reality.
Change happens all the time. Even when we don't want it to. You may stay in bed all day and not do anything at all, and still, your body will change. It is programmed to grow. From the minute we enter the world, that's all we ever do. We change as we grow. So, if even the tiniest pieces that make who we are don't do anything other than change all the time, why would we want to stay the same?
Change is good. It is ok to change, no one forces you to be, to think or to behave the same way throughout your life. If they do, be wary. You might be living under an authoritarian regime. Change has helped us arrive where we are today. If it hadn't been for change, we'd still be banging two rocks against each other to create fire. When you allow yourself space to change, you grow and you evolve. Look back and ask yourself: are you still the same person that you were 5 or 10 years ago?
One of the key factors why human beings have been such a successful species is our ability to adapt easily to new circumstances. We see something that is not favourable to us, we study it, we experiment with solutions, we implement change and we adapt.
However, being adaptable is a double-edged sword. The better adapted you are, the less adaptable you tend to be. Maybe to live in a constant state of change and growth is what we should all aspire to. We see it in our bodies, why not implement it in our minds as well?
The pandemic has created an inflexion point in the history of humanity. It has revealed the flaws in our ways, but it has also created the perfect opportunity to reinvent ourselves and our societies in order to correct those flaws. If under normal circumstances change is good, under exceptional ones change is vital.
Four centuries ago, during a different outbreak, Shakespeare gave life to King Lear, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra. If the plague hadn't shocked his world, there might have been no Lear, or Romeo and Juliet, or Hamlet.
There will be a clear before and a clear after once we overcome the present situation. And I would like to see myself on the other side of the tunnel as someone who was receptive, someone who took the time to look around and acknowledge their flaws and decided to change and to grow.
At the end of the road, very few will remember where you came from. Most people will only see you for what you have become.
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