Dear Heaven Maker:
Like you, I’ve been reflecting and thinking about what’s going on in our world at this time.
Three observations have become clearer to me.
The Emergence of Humanity
For many years people have thought about the idea of Humanity. We’ve written about it. We’ve expressed our hopes for it.
But what’s been missing is the experience of Humanity shared by Humanity.
That’s what I think corona is giving us. The virus not only threatens individuals, it threatens all of Humanity.
We’ve read about and seen people’s concerns about disruption, illness and death. People, in every nation on earth, are fearful of catching the disease. These universal human feelings are present all over our world today.
In addition, caring, creativity, and ingenuity are human values that are being expressed in every nation. These deeply held human values are present all over our world today.
My dear friend Faye Christian recently said, “In the middle of chaos our Humanity is being awakened.”
Humanity as a lived common experience has clearly been released and is being felt globally. We feel it, we see it.
Oscar Motomura, president of Amana-Key in Brazil, says “The experience of Humanity is now tangible.”
The next chapter in our evolution as individual humans and as Humanity has begun.
What do we do when disruptive change is here and what do we do when it’s no longer here?
It’s always been true that how we react to what occurs is a human choice within our power.
An event happens and we react to it. We can react as we always have, or, we can pause, take a breath, and choose how we are going to react.
In the face of corona let’s pause and choose to wake up to a different world, one in which we say how we would like it to be, and then work towards that.
Clearly our number one priority at present is to care for those who are ill, take care of those in need, have compassion for those who have lost loved ones, and to find the cure for corona.
I think we also have to begin preparing for what comes after corona. What kind of world do we want post-corona? Do we want one in which we are ‘asleep,’ at the effect of technology, addicted to an unending search for happiness and one where the environment continues degrading. Or, do we want a world with more caring, more love, with a cleaner, healthier environment, with opportunity for the growth of the collective values we hold so dear.
The Opposite of Catastrophe
We can view the current corona situation as a catastrophe.
‘Catastrophe‘ can also apply to the refugee situation in the world, and to the environmental situation in the world.
Bottom line….we know what a catastrophe is.
I remember a contest run in the est magazine years ago. The question was ‘What is the opposite of Catastrophe?’
The winning answer was the new word ‘Benestrophe.’ Bene, from the Latin, meaning ‘good,’ and strophe from the Greek meaning ‘turning.’
So, instead of ‘bad’ (catastrophe) breaking out in our world, let’s reflect on and support the ‘good,’ ‘Benestrophe.’, breaking out in the world.
Thank you,
Martin
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Martin Rutte
