Dinosaurs
people wishing that they get clear instructions and directions when we are not even certain of where we are going.
Parents and students demand that school administrators define a fixed design for how the academic term or year will unfold. Teachers seek definitive guidance on what would be adopted as a learning and teaching modality. We speak of dates being set, as if these can bind the virus to behave according to our schedules.
And this is where it becomes challenging. There is so much about this pandemic and the virus that causes it that we do not know, that it will be foolish for us to cling to the usual templates and models in seeking for knowledge, solutions and order in our lives. And yet, we cannot simply put on lockdown our entire lives and place ourselves in suspended animation, hoping that we can recover and recuperate our old normal.
The new normal has become the buzz word, and we imagine it as a world of physically distanced isolates feasting on home- delivered goods and services, from education to shopping. But we speak of it as if it is something that can be predetermined, pre- ordained and pre- ordered for future delivery. This, even if it is more likely that this new normal is not a definite telos, or end, but a continuing struggle, a constant becoming.
Certainly, in order to survive this pandemic, the key is flexibility and versatility. We have to be innovative. We should develop an appreciation for randomness and surprises.
We cannot win over this virus if we are paralyzed by fear and paranoia. What we must do is to get out of our comfort zones, and harness our fear as a weapon to discover and innovate, and not as an excuse to retreat and surrender. We cannot fight this virus by confining ourselves to our physical comfort zones hoping the virus will not reach us. We should all practice precautionary measures that science and common sense direct us to do. And we should become instruments to enable others to do the same. But we cannot do this if we hibernate until this is over.
We cannot let this virus win. We cannot forever cower in paranoia and fear. We need to innovate, adopt new perspectives and adapt to a rapidly changing world. We cannot be like the dinosaurs that were helpless and unable to adapt to a changing planet and evolve, and thus became extinct.
In the end, this pandemic may be teaching us the important lesson of humility, not the kind where we accept that we are helpless and surrender to the virus, but the kind where we admit that we have limited knowledge. In order for us to prevail and survive, we must learn and innovate. We are not masters and rulers of this planet like those once mighty but now extinct dinosaurs.