So, we are all locked down and confined to the boundaries of our residence. If you are a human, it’s been a crazy couple of weeks and everything that you thought was normal has been flipped on its head. The world is facing a threat that has brought civilization to a complete standstill.
The covid-19 pandemic has been actively rewriting our future and we seem to have no control of the outcome it seems. But I for one am an optimistic guy, so it’s with full confidence that I say we will bounce back from this and will collectively be a better and more understanding society as a whole.
Now, as one after another country go into complete lock down, traveling is getting more and more restricted. The pandemic has affected people, economies, and industries across the spectrum; from huge corporations to small retail outlets, no one has been spared. But travel and transportation sectors have been completely decimated by it.
Established airlines companies are filing for bankruptcy, previously bustling tourists spots are turning into ghost towns and elaborate, expensive vacations are being unceremoniously cancelled. And by the looks of it, this is going to go on for a while.
Even by conservative estimates, it’s safe to say that the Coronavirus will not vanish from the face of the planet within a few seasons. Unless it destroys itself due to some freak mutation or something, there is no respite till a drug or more importantly a vaccine is created. So, till then people will not travel freely and neither should the authorities allow it.
So, in short, for people like me, whose life revolves around traveling or planning/researching related to travel; it’s going to be a dry few months or a year. But, it’s a necessary sacrifice that must be made for our own safety and for those close to us. Even for the most hardcore backpacker/globetrotter/vagabond, the numero uno priority right now is staying healthy and as far from public contact as possible.
Exploration and traveling has been a part of our culture since time began. It’s the trait that has allowed us to spread to every landmass on this blue ball of life. And as society has progressed, newer and more efficient ways of connection has been established. The advent of cheap international air tickets coupled with new career options has lead to a hyper connected modern society.
Today, people identify themselves as global citizens and words like digital nomads or location independent work are a thing of mainstream reality. The fact that this virus has swept across the globe in a matter of months, lays testament to the level of connectivity we have today. Within a span of hundred days, a virus has spread from a wet market in Wuhan to every single continent on Earth.
Now, this isn’t to say that the hyper connectivity is a negative side effect of societal progress. Being a passionate traveler myself, I believe this fluidity of travel is an essence of free will and it should be cherished, protected at all cost.
Most of us were lucky enough to be born in an era of relative global peace. Yes, there have been horrific civil wars, battles against terror, toppling of governments, etc. But none of these has ever put the entire population of the world on notice. The most recent global unrest of this scale was the 2nd World War.
So, to put it mildly, we have been a lucky generation. Never have our civil liberties been curtailed on such a collective level. The very things we have taken for granted are now out of bounds. And our freedom to explore is now considered an act of treason, a thing so dangerous that it could potentially upstage national infrastructure.
When this comes to an end, which it eventually will, we should all take stock of what we are so lucky to have. Freedom is actually a gift and most of us didn’t even notice it until it’s taken away from us. We are like fish in water, without acknowledging that water actually exists.
So, for those of us who will come out the other side of this pandemic (hopefully we all will), it’s a wake up call to live intentionally. Stop putting off that interesting class that you have always wanted to enroll, stop doing the job just for the sake of doing it, stop hanging out with people that really isn’t your tribe but you hang out anyway, because it’s “networking”, etc.
There is no tomorrow, you only get today, we all do. It’s up to us to justify it with meaning and passion. Our mortality and that of our loved ones is not an event scheduled far off in the distant future, it might be just round the corner, you’ll never know. So, going forward, we should use this global crisis as a bookmark for the chapter called uncertainty in the novel that is our life.
Stay safe, stay healthy, stay present.
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