Thoughts of a Young Man in These COVID-19 Streets

Greetings dear ones.

This is a strange introduction. This happens to be the first time traditionally greeting my audience before presenting my message. In these times, it has become indispensable to avoid human contact, hence we ought to express our digital connection in the most natural way.

From my personal observation, the world is coming to a pause. You probably opened this article because you saw ‘COVID-19’ in the title. I’m not here to discuss what you’ve probably read – how the disease started, how it became a pandemic, what coronavirus is, what the symptoms are, preventive measures, whether the proposed medications will be effective, when the vaccine would be available for a mass rollout, and so on.

I am here to have a broad discussion of what my thoughts have been throughout this moment. For most of us, this is the first time we’re experiencing a global pandemic with a conscious mind and eye. Nations that we thought had it all figured out are falling right before our eyes. Hence, most of us are troubled, we feel helpless, and we’re scared that either we or our loved ones are going to get infected, or probably breathe the last breath. These emotions are very natural; that’s the usual human response when we’re made to confront our mortality. Considering how the virus is spreading, we question ourselves, how possibly is it going to end? Will we even see the end of 2020? Is the world coming to an end? So many questions, but few profound answers.

Referring to the history of pandemics, there have been deadlier periods. For instance, Black Death which happened in 1347 – 1351 resulted in 200 million deaths, and the 1918 Spanish flu infected half of the estimated population of the world then and killed about 50 million people. For the millennial, the epidemic that came close to being a global pandemic was Ebola which became severe four years ago, as it resulted in an estimate of 11,300 deaths. Brothers and sisters, this shall not be the end of the human race. We will survive it. People will get infected, people will die, but it will not wipe the human race off the earth.

One topic that barely gets discussed is our mortality. We’ll all die, but we get very uncomfortable when death is mentioned. It’s because we fear. We don’t want to die, no matter how unpleasant life is. Inasmuch as the rate of suicide skyrockets, a lot of us wake up in pursuit of survival.

We can’t control our fear of getting infected or dying because it’s happening to everyone around us. When you switch on the TV, there’s a broadcast of death statistics. When you turn to social media, there’s overload of negative information. Our relatives and friends have become agents of spreading bad news. Everyone is spewing fear on the cyber streets. All these get us worried. Even if we were fearless about the pandemic from the start, we tend to think if it’s not false hope that we’re fuelling ourselves with. We become prone to this contagious form of fear.

The whole world is in panic. One reason is that we’re not stopping our minds from racing, and asking ourselves how the world has progressed in relation to the outbreak since the announcement of it. We’re not focusing on the positive news, mostly because the media is not promoting it. We need information as we battle this pandemic, but too much of it will only cripple us. I entreat you to filter the news. You essentially don’t need to be looking at real-time rise of cases in various countries if you’re not a reporter, statistician or in a position that you’d need it. Sometimes, the conditions we feel in our bodies are not real, but it’s a psychological reaction. You may feel symptoms that are not even existent. That’s why placebo works.

Fear must be fought at all costs in these trying times. Fear only worsens the case. Personally, I’ve deleted my social media and news apps. I’m spending less time watching and listening to the news. I testify it has highly been a relief. The mind works with what you feed it. Ignorance is truly bliss. There is enough negativity around you, acknowledge these are not ordinary times, but feed your mind with inspiring, uplifting and positive content.

This pandemic has made me realise that as a human race we’re very helpless. With all the sophistication of science and technology, look at how we’re trembling at the feet of a virus – an enemy that we can’t see unaided. Astronomers are able to tell us what is happening on Mars and Jupiter, but we can’t help our own selves. We have artificial intelligence, tissue engineering, genetic modifications, and whatnots. Upon all the research that has been conducted on pathogens, we couldn’t prevent a pandemic from happening. I’d like to assert that for a significant part, we focused on the wrong things. The most essential of our existence is life and strength. Instead of focusing our energy, time, wisdom and ability to improve it, we were so concerned about LGBT, feminism, national armies, and things that don’t ensure existence. There are various personalities like Bill gates and other associations who echoed how we’re not prepared for the next outbreak, but we became deaf to it.

In the end, most affected countries are now on lockdown. People are literally being forced to stay at home. What do we learn from this? All our human pursuits cannot be prioritsed over the possession of life. Jobs, economy, money, and a whole lot of things are human constructs. We don’t really need them to survive.

Lastly, science alone is not the answer. There are people who believe in science so much because it has been able to answer many questions, it has helped in civilisation, it has equipped healthcare. The human race has been able to evolve due to science, but depending on it alone will not answer all our questions. There is a deeper understanding of many mysteries that are above our mental comprehension and logic. This virus is considered novel, however, are we aware of other viruses, creatures, and substances in existence that we haven’t discovered, and various things that we haven’t unearthed? We can and should pursue things that will benefit the human race, but we shouldn’t forget that all these are intangible if God is not at the centre of it all. We can’t even deal with nature, we can’t handle the earth, we keep destroying it and spend time and energy to get it back to its natural state. We build and natural disasters destroy. We don’t have enough control over ourselves. Life only becomes meaningful, mysteries make sense, and our questions are being answered when we believe in the one true God and love Him. Peace be with you.