CORONAVIRUS CHALLENGES AND GIFTS

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CORONAVIRUS CHALLENGES AND GIFTS


COLLECTIVE DREAMING

The current situation will bring different challenges and gifts to each of us, and some of those challenges and gifts may have a more universal character. One of the most commonly repeated phrases I am hearing is "I feel like I'm in a film" and of course, that's because we are living in a film. Cultural products are the artist's expression of a collective dream, and as we know, dreams do not just compensate, they also foretell - and this is why they have been looked to as sources of divination in so many cultures throughout history. This is not the same as prophecy where the voice of the deity says how it will be.

YOU DON'T NEED A WEATHERMAN...


No, this is more the unconscious foretelling the unfolding of events based on current trends - not unlike a weather forecast. So, writers and film-makers for generations have been producing dystopian narratives that have in some ways been foretellings of the future, and now here we are living in the future that was foretold.

RISK - BENEFIT ANALYSIS

And so we will all have our separate, different and similar experiences of the challenge of these times. I have heard Introverts whose work is such that they can, and must continue unchanged confess guilt over secret feelings of envy for those "who can go into social isolation" and I have had Extroverts describe their surprise at finding that they are actually enjoying the breathing space that social distancing and isolation bring. I have heard of long standing health issues that have seemingly miraculously disappeared since the crisis, and I have heard of people eating and sleeping better than they ever have.

Of course, this is not to say that many other people are having extremely anxiety provoking experiences as a result of the Coronavirus and the procedures necessary to do what we can to manage and reduce its overall effects. There are those who are unable to get a good night's sleep, others who can barely bring themselves to eat. I have heard of elders in the high risk groups weeping for days in response to their feelings of isolation, or taking risks with their own safety in order to obtain some desperately needed social contact. So, we will all face our separate, different and similar experiences, challenges and benefits of the current situation.

MAY IT BE SO....

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