The Importance of Learning from the Pandemic
April 24th, 2021.
It has been one year since I wrote “Precious wounds as social nutrients”.
In it, I quoted Isaac Asimov “The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom”.
On this week of Earth Day, what better moment to continue to reflect on what this past year has brought on humanity. If anything, what have we learned from it.
In the 2020, the world has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, causing great suffering and loss. However, it has also highlighted the importance of science and its ability to provide solutions to global problems. Within a year, scientists developed a vaccine to combat the virus, offering hope to humanity. However, despite this scientific achievement, some people remain hesitant to take the vaccine, creating a division among society.
The pandemic has also highlighted the shortcomings of the “Me First” business philosophy. This strategy, based on “Dog eats dog” or “homo hominis lupus,” and an economic system based on competitiveness and over-consumption, has led to the spread of the virus and the present situation emergency.
As a global community, we must learn from this experience and gain wisdom to transform ourselves and our approach to life. We should take this opportunity to reflect on the lessons of the pandemic and strive to create a more harmonious and sustainable world.
Our Relationship with the Earth
As a global community, we must recognize that we are all part of the larger, interconnected system known as the Earth, or Gaia. The Earth has sustained life for billions of years, and we are integral to this process of transformation and evolution. However, our actions have threatened the health of the planet, and we must take responsibility for our impact on the environment.
We are one community: the human community, and our primary status is the change process. The ability to transform and respond by growing, moving, living, and dying. We are not conquerors of one another, the planet, or the universe.
Our connection with the Earth should be one of reciprocal respect and care. We must acknowledge that the four elements – water, air, earth, and fire – are critical to our survival and that we must care for them to ensure their long-term survival. When one of these elements is jeopardized, we all suffer, hence it is our collective responsibility to protect and preserve them. By applying this rationale, the elements will give us continued sustenance.
Learning from the Forest
William Wordsworth wrote: “The mind is the garden, your thoughts are the seeds, the harvest can either be flowers or weeds”. Let me add that Gaia is the gardener, and it has a story to tell us. We can learn much from nature, and specifically from the forest.
When the forest is on fire, a process of maintaining the health of trees and grassland begins. This is possible because, paraphrasing Dr. Suzanne Simard, Professor of Forest Ecology at the UBC, Canada, “Trees live side by side, perceiving one another, learning, and adapting their behaviours, recognizing neighbours, and remembering the past. They elicit warnings and mount defences, compete and cooperate with one another with sophistication: characteristics previously ascribed to human intelligence, traits that are the essence of civil societies.”
We can apply this learning to our own lives and recognize that we are part of a larger community. We must work together, cooperate, and support one another to create a better world. The pandemic has shown us that we are all vulnerable and that we must learn to care for one another, regardless of race, ethnicity, or nationality.
A New Paradigm
The ‘Human Community’ still burning due to Covid-19!
It has no boundaries. Each of us knows what is happening and what processes have been put into action. The global vaccine should have been a global undertaking, with a free licence available to every nation, rather than considering first as a profit-making venture. Wisdom tells us to pool the universal knowledge to achieve a global vaccine and sharing it equally with humanity.
This would be a new paradigm, learning the strategy of sharing from the forest, on how we define ourselves as a Global Human Community. A paradigm which could be applied to other situations, for example the ecological crisis and poverty.
We must shift our thinking from the “Me First” business strategy to one that emphasizes sharing, caring, and sustainability. Science, technology, and business should be processes that create caring communities with a positive, concrete impact on people and the environment. The value of these processes should not be based solely on financial performance, but also on their ability to generate social well-being. By applying a sharing strategy, we can create anew paradigm that is wise, intelligent, circular, and eco-sustainable. This approach can be applied not only to the pandemic, but also to other global crises, such as the ecological crisis and poverty.
Let’s take action to transform our global community with wisdom and care. We can learn from nature, which shows us the power of cooperation and sharing, and apply these lessons to our own lives and communities. We can prioritize social and environmental well-being over profit and competition, making decisions that benefit people and the planet.
Let’s also work together to combat the current pandemic and other global crises, sharing knowledge and resources for the greater good.
So, I urge you to take action now. Reflect on the lessons learned during the pandemic and how we can apply them to create a better world. Take steps in your personal life to prioritize social and environmental well-being, and encourage those around you to do the same. Advocate for a global approach to combating the pandemic and other global crises, where knowledge and resources are shared equally among all nations.
Remember that as Marshall McLuhan said: “There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew “. As a crew, we have the seeds of wisdom to operate in harmony and create a sustainable future for ourselves and generations to come.