By nature I’m a fetishist of new beginnings. And this totally unfamiliar situation that we currently experience due to the pandemic of the Corona virus contains an incredible potential. I am exploring that in my next blog “Our visions right now are key”. I am absolutely aware that there is no return ot the old. I don´t even want that personally. These new arising perspectives of collective interaction are far too exciting. The unbelievably swift ways to solution that seemed unfeasible before.
The past needs to be honoured
But then I realized that it is unwise to only focus on the future alone. One has to part consciously with the old. It is a bit like moving out of an old house where we lived a very long time. There is a lot of stuff that accumulated in the attic and in the cellar. But we certainly won´t have use for that in the new home. So we must part with it. In order to do that, we have to take every single item and throw it away. Without a doubt this will bring up memories.
However, we are not moving into a new building, but into a new time. It will never be the way it was before. We will have changed too much by the things we currently learn and experience.
Many fears – not only about our health
Many people have mixed feelings about this move. They are haunted by their fears, of which they are more or less aware. Partly they fear the discovery that there is indeed no return to the old and perhaps even should not be. And on the other hand they are afraid to perhaps not be able to do what needs to be done now. These fears are utterly justified. We should allow ourselves to feel them so we can overcome them in due course. Only when we´ve given fear enough space, named and expressed it, it blocks us less. Then we can finally open ourselves to the new, to what wants to happen. Perhaps it is even better than the old and familiar. Even though we have no idea what the new actually looks like.
We should allow ourselves to grieve
Not only for the loss of things and structures. People need to be able to grieve for the loss of their loved ones, even though the circumstances might be currently tough. Not being allowed to assemble makes a communal parting and the possibility to comfort each other difficult. Particularly when we are at a loss of words a hug can be so much more powerful.
And we should grieve for what actually could have been right now: i.e. the wedding, the sabbatical abroad, visiting friends overseas etc. Many also grieve for their lost freedom: no sports center, no barbeque parties, no soccer tournaments, no going out to dance – and not even a spontaneous hug. And all with the looming question of: how long is this going to last?
There is also anger
And there is also a lot of anger and despair. Little children don´t understand why they cannot play with other kids or are not allowed to see their beloved grandparents. Teens cannot meet with their friends and have to spend an insane amount of time with their families – whom they love to escape on occasion… Parents in turn have to manage the constant and different needs of their children and their own and not every family lives in a large home with a garden. Especially in countries where a lot in life takes place outside the situation is particularly challenging.
Also social stress, economic uncertainty and a basic feeling of enclosure as well as loneliness irritate us and make us angry. Many are also angry at the situation in general: at the virus, at the politicians, at life that puts us in a situation like this and even god, who allows all this to happen….
And those are only the feelings that the current situation has confronted us with. But there is a lot more to this.
The pandemic as a lesson
I believe that one potential of the virus is to make us aware of the unhealthy aspects of our being in a wholesome way.
Somewhat trite but still true is the notion of humans as a viral sickness of planet earth. We do not treat our home planet well and now we are threatened to become ill in an unprecedented number. If that is not to escalate by future viruses, we have to do something. My feeling is: if we don´t change something in the course of this pandemic, the next one will follow suite. And it will be probably worse. As it usually happens when we humans have to learn something and ignore the gentle admonishment. Parents and teachers know this all too well. And apparently cosmic pedagogy also has her means and ways!
Consciously part with the good, the bad and the suppressed
In order to become truly free for the healthy newness, we must let go of the bad aspects of our past with full awareness. Otherwise it continues to rumble in our subconscious and impedes the new beginning. We must particularly deal with those parts of our old baggage that we preferred to ignore or suppress so far, either out of convenience or helplessness.
A conversation with friends who grew up in Eastern Germany, the GDR made me aware of this dynamic. Initially they were joking then they became increasingly more irritated in pointing out that our current situation reminds them in some ways of the final days of their regime. They were not only referring to the empty shelves in the super market or the lines outside of it, but also the contradictions in the media, the strict regulations and hollow promises of the politicians and that which was rumoured in the underground: the GDR was bankrupt, communism or rather socialism had failed and the politicians were at their end.
Certain parallels in falling
Even though the omens are different, I do share similar feelings and observations. The media are full of contradictions. Newspapers and broadcasting channels fuel the fire of disaster and stir the fears of the population. That in turn willingly complies to the restriction of their liberties to protect their own health and that of their fellow human beings. But in the social media there is an increasingly intense battle between those who find this justified and necessary and those who have an increasing feeling that this is only the beginning of total control by the governments and fear that this will be ever reinforced.
And finally there are those who try to connect the dots between the pandemic and economy (big pharma!), politics (how obedient are the masses?) the entertainment industry (what agenda are they actually pursueing). They regularly come to the same conclusion that there is massive manipulation going on in all realms, especially in the media. Their opponents then call them conspiracy theorists. And both sides accuse each other more or less elegantly to be attention addicted image neurotics who want to beef up their dubious reputation with pompous claims, horrific scenarios and nefarious insinuations.
It is not about who is right but how we reach a good result for all
I don´t want to side with anybody here or even try convincing others who is right or wrong. That would be far too presumptuous. I do not know the whole truth either. Like most others I also work myself through the daily and increasingly dense jungle of news with my personal machete of truth. It is exhausting and often confusing.
However, we will not move toward a peaceful and constructive cooperation if we keep thinking in oppositions and constantly blame each other for the various grievances. Or view ourselves, our fellow human beings and social life at large with our outdated and preconditioned perception of perpetrators, victims and rescuers.
It is not about good or bad, but about awareness
It is no longer about thee old and popular (at least in entertainment) battle between good and evil. Besides, each party always considers themselves to be good guys – so who is the bad guy then? That always depended on the eye of the beholder:
The mother who denies her child an ice cream before dinner? The thief who steals food so he can feed his family? The world leader who forbids his people to assemble? Not only so they are protected of a possibly terrible disease, but perhaps from something else? That he cannot say publicly for various reasons and thereby evokes the opposition in his own team?
Or those potentates who not only killed the people in order to enlargen their territory but also tortured and abused them? They too were probably loved by someone for a good reason…
And I am definitely not saying that there is no injustice or people shouldn´t be punished for their horrible deeds. But we need to see the whole picture. In my modest experience the “bad being” usually suffered terribly themselves at some point in order to then be able to commit such deeds. Or they are psychologically so completely sick that a the effect of punishment can be doubted.
On the other hand…I believe that only very few of us would become monsters under the same circumstances. How incorruptible are we really?
How evil do circumstances make us?
I came to these realizations about twenty years ago when I was co-presenting an event on “Evil”. A German film director then told us that he had always dreamed about making a movie about his grandfather. The old gentleman had been a honoured war veteran of WW2 and a respected and popular citizen in his home town, a well known member of the parish council and a loving grandfather. And the whole family agreed that his grandson – the film director – was the spitting image of his most admirable grandfather. For years the film director was very proud of this.
However when he began to research the history of the grandfather for his filmproject, and started scratching under the surface of the image of the war hero, he had to realise that his grandfather had been an SS-officer who was personally responsible for the death of five thousand people. The beloved granddad was a murderer. And one question kept the film director awake for months: if he was so much like his grandfather, would have then acted like him under the same circumstances and sent five thousand people into their certain death? He said there was not a day that went by that he wasn´t grateful that we were now living in a different historical situation and he hopefully was never going to be put in a similar situation. For he just didn´t know how he would act.
Some might want to point out that we are not in a war after all. Besides, we don´t live in a totalitarian regime like the people in Nazi Germany or in the GDR forty years ago. But in our time there are also quite a few things in a sorry state and not only nationally. Many people still experience horrific things – and certain dynamics led to this that should be avoided in a new beginning.
Complacency makes us ignorant
Since we have a rather high standard of living and a long period of peace in the Western countries, we have become somewhat complacent We avoid uncomfortable questions all too quickly and easily and like blaming others for it. But actually our world is not as light and bright as it seems. Among the darker sides of our comfortable life is he poverty in many countries, the many economic refugees, drug trafficking, people trafficking, pollution and the booming of the so called ‘diseases of civilization’ like burn-out, depression, dementia and increasing suicides. To really look at all of this evokes fear, sadness, powerlessness and anger. Many then try to find someone whom they can make responsible for these events.
But I don´t find the question who is to be made responsible not that important. What I find important is the question who is willing to accept the responsibility that this really can change towards the better? Do we really want that people are doing well at the expense of other people?
So far our world has been working this way. Even if you don´t actually want it. But most of us simply accept it. For example: mobile phones contain rare metals that usually mined by children… That concerns all of us! I too like my smartphone and prefer suppressing his unpleasant fact. As well as the fact that there is an alternative, albeit quite expensive: the fairphone. But I get worse and worse at ignoring these things. And so I wonder: what can I do and motivate others too to make the world a more just, more healthy, more beautiful and liveable place for all people?
We should not miss this chance
It is time to wake up and act with awareness – together. We must become more awake and alert if we really want to live in a world that is good and healthy for all people.
I believe it is hightime we also take a closer look at the more unpleasant things and then consciously act together to change it. The key is the word together here. The MORE people refrain from using environmentally harmful materials and ingesting unhealthy food and demand alternatives, the faster the market has to react. Besides, there are already quite a number of alternatives – the more we make use of them, the more affordable they would become for all of us. More about this in my next blog.
If we disagree with a new law we should not just accept it, grind our teeth, make do and occasionally complain. We should consciously deal with it and act upon it within our means. Each one of us. And not leave the informing, demonstrating, street blocking and anti-consumerism to a minority of activists. We must support each other in resisting the bad or rather support each other in what we really want. It is not about fighting the planned bad stuff. Fighting creates more fighting. But to use one´s whole power, without violence and aggression together with others for implementing the good works. Mahatma Gandhi showed us how.
We are responsible for our future and that of our children
Each one of us is responsible for our very own behaviour and perception of the world. Just as for what is to happen in the future. We must become very clear of what we truly want. In the short, middle and long term. For ourselves, for those whom we love and ideally also for our host, planet earth.
And if we really want to be more awake and live it, we cannot avoid unpleasant feelings like guilt, shame, anger, fear and grief. If we do that we do the same as our grandparents after the Holocaust. They all subconsciously suppressed and split off their old unresolved feelings and unwittingly passed them on to their children and grandchildren. Epigenetic and psychological research has proven this time and time again. We know better now and we can help each other with painful feelings and the liberation from them. Many psychologists are trained in exactly this.
Appreciation might be a key
And another insight: a couple of weeks ago I saw a face mask lying in the dirt on the ground for the first time. Since then I see more and more face masks and one-way gloves in places where they certainly do not belong.
That does not exactly support the notion that the – not only by me – desired shift in consciousness taking place. Why do these people who actually make an effort with particular care to not spread the virus not extend their effort to their environment? My hunch is that they do the first not out of consideration, but of fear and the latter laziness to find a trash can is based on a lack of respect. Then there are stories of people who massively attack each other for not guarding the safe distance or even report minor violations of regulations to the police.
Inner and outer issues
I assume the trash makers don´t care how the environment is doing or what it looks like. Possibly because they themselves don´t feel cared for either. As a human being as well as in what they do. The denunciators want to feel better by passing their miserable sense of self and fear of making mistakes simply on to others. According to the motto: if you are bad, than I am surely the good guy. In both cases a rather childish behaviour.
These fellow human beings still sleep rather deeply. I don´t know either how we can wake them and enthuse them to change their consciousness. But both groups have something in common. The fearful, careless trash producers as well as the self-righteous denunciators: they both have a lack of self-worth they express at the expense of others.
The change begins in us
Scolding them will hardly help in the long run. To the contrary, it evokes spite and resistance, as is usual with this degree of maturity… And I believe instead of scolding and judging them for their annoying behaviour we should teach them to love themselves and their environment. And we achieve most when we lead by good example und become moving expressions of love and appreciation towards our self, our fellow human beings and our environment.
Some of us feel insecure in that realm. Too strong is our habit to criticise – our self and others. But we can change this and practise and strengthen it. There are many sources on- and offline on how to do this. If you want to find out more find he people and sources you resonate with and trust.
We must clean up internally and externally while we go into the new!
For only when we´ve released our own subconscious from the baggage of the past can we live in peace in the long run. And the more people experience real inner peace the more peaceful and worth living our lives and the world can become, that we create together.
Right now is the possibility for the paradigm shift. We should make use of it.
We are an unbelievably flexible and creative species if need is. The most recent side effects of the world wide quarantine show this time and time again: if we must, we develop the most amazing solutions. Often also for the benefit and joy of others – let us expand this towards ALL!
