Did you see it? When all of this began, humanity at large was thrown by fear of death into deep Stage Three (I am my needs). We became selfish. We hoarded toilet paper and food. We were ugly to each other. We judged each other’s choices and actions. And slowly, we started to look around us and notice that others were suffering so much more. Some elderly neighbors were scared. First responders were working overtime risking their lives. Families were suffering loss. And we moved en mass into Stage Four (others have needs too). We took comfort in helping others while maintaining our own needs too. And, as always, there were too many to help in too many ways, and the competition of needs among ourselves and others has now thrown us into the next, inevitable stage… Stage Five… back to where we, in the United States anyway, largely began… I am my ideology. For some this looks like insisting on attending church services. For others, it is protest and other forms of asserting freedom and independence. For some, it is campaigning, officially and unofficially, for new laws that have nothing to do with the crisis at hand, but everything to do with political ideology. Ah yes, we are largely back to ourselves. So what comes next? THAT is the question we each must ask unto ourselves. You just decide what comes next? Will you remain in the torment of Stage Five? Will you give Stage Six a try (live and let live)? For many this experience of pandemic, isolation and uncertainty will have thrown them into a full blown midlife crisis… an awakening. We will see much larger than average numbers of people in Stage Seven (questioning everything). If this is your first time in Stage Seven, it can be a very dark place. If it is your second, third or fourth time through Stage Seven, it can be a lot of fun. But whether this is your first time through or your tenth, it is a stage of redesigning your life. So when we come out of this, and life gets back to “normal”, there will be a much larger than average number of people who will choose to completely redesign their lives. They will question everything. They will choose differently. They will have wiped the slate clean and started a new daily routine from zero. New beliefs and new ideas will inform a new way of life that they like much better. What that looks like may look radically different for each of us. That’s OK. Try to have fun with it! This too is human. This pandemic, or rather out reaction to this pandemic, has been a global, humanity-scale reset button. I have no idea what the collective result will be, but I am greatly looking forward to finding out.
