The plague is among us more challenging than ever. The good news is that we can rely on lessons learned because she visited us before.
The Sufi tradition has a good one to offer, since in ancient times the Mulla Nasrudin met the plague while traveling on his donkey.
As they met, he asked:
ꟷWhere are you going?
The response he got was:
ꟷTo Bagdad, to kill 10.000
After some time they met again and by then Nasrudin was very angry with the plague.
Yelling at her he said:
ꟷYou lied to me! You said you were going to kill 10.000 and you killed 100.000!
To what she very quietly replied:
ꟷI didn’t. I killed 10.000. The rest died because of fear.
Now fear is among us again. But still it is more complex than that. For example, just as Coronavirus arrived to Argentina I was on a trip and came back to Buenos Aires the very day the alarms turned red. Face-masks, alcohol and food disappeared within hours even before the government launched strict measures to prevent the outspread, which included quarantine, social distancing and permissions. But there were people who interpreted this as a good occasion for an additional vacation, adding recklessness to fear and plague.
The lessons learned are also greater. One of the most infamous plagues in history was the Black Death that spread out through the commercial routes from Asia to Europe and swept out more than a third of the continent’s populations during the 14th century.
What stopped it?
- Strict measures on people displacement among cities.
- Isolation of the infected and quarantines to the potentially infected.
- Better hygiene practices
- Population decay to a level that weakened further spread out of the disease.
Relying on those lessons is more important than ever, since we live in highly integrated world, characterized by its increasing interdependence and complexity. Taking full advantage of those lessons combined with new knowledge and technologies hopefully will allow us to prevent an escalade of casualties and to move forward towards a sustainable humanity, for which we are struggling for some decades by now.
This is a collective challenge that involves all of us. Each one of us has to contribute to the process. It is time to fulfill our duties as planetary citizens, responsibly acting our autoecoethic: caring for ourselves and our world. Wherever you are, whatever you do, do it with hope, faith and care!
What can we do during this unexpected pause, particularly while stay at home?
As always, a good combination of activity and rest is the best option. But on this occasion aim to strengthen your body, mind and spirit: your overall health.
Good nutrition, exercise, reflection, rest, and reviewing your plans for the future will work. Yes! A bright future, that encourages you and fills with enthusiasm for new or old endeavors.
Here 10 ideas of what to do:
- Prepare yummy nutritious meals
- Declutter your wardrobe
- Read books that uplift you
- Meditate, pray and take good naps.
- Keep contact with others
- Play with your animal friends
- Revisit your dreams
- Write down ideas and insights
- Look at the sky and let yourself be filled with the infinite open sky. It is very soothing.
- Can’t go out for a walk? Dance at home, exercising, breathing, stretching.
Keep your morale high!
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