2020: The Year of Virus Vision?

Unprecedented, extraordinary, unusual, unfamiliar…in recent weeks, such words have been dusted off the shelf marked ‘occasional’ and given pride of place in a year that will be hard to forget, whatever the eventual impact of the Corona virus.

How has it played out for me?
At the beginning, I caught faint strains of news about a virus ‘over there’ again… why do I need to pay it any heed?
I was remembering Sars, Bird Flu and such like. What’s this one called again? Ah yes, Corona, that’s right. Ha-Ha! Didn’t that used to be a make of fizzy drink?
Then I started to get confused. News words, images and numbers focusing on illness and death in Italy and Spain. Cancelling sporting events. Closing theatres, pubs, clubs.
Lockdown? (Isn’t that what they do to quell a prison riot?)
Quarantine? (Everyone? Why? That’s for those who have got the thing isn’t it?)
But how to know if we’ve caught it?
Well, can we get tested for it then? Not yet? So when? Any day soon, soon, soon.

And countering these reports and decisions was information that seemed accurate, based on what was actually happening.
We probably won’t know if we’ve got it.
If we do catch it, 80% of us will experience no more than feeling rough for a few days.
And 90% of the people who are dying with it (not from it), have pre-existing conditions, some as many as 3.

And then the solutions came to stop the spread.
Isolation. Physical distancing, leading to social disconnection and loss. Loss, that’s a biggie. Loss of work, wider family, friends.  And for some, a permanent loss of people cared about.
Never was the Grief Cycle of Elizabeth Kubler Ross more needed to be understood and acted upon. (To remind you or do discover what this is, visit   https://www.ekrfoundation.org/5-stages-of-grief/ )
Similarly, as I have written in a previous post, the lesser known but equally robust ‘Change and Transition’ model created by William Bridges who differentiates the external experience of change with the internal experience of transition of 3 stages that we all go through with ‘endings’ as the first stage. For more details visit www.communicateforachange.com/making-friends-with-change/

So here I find myself, as does everyone, not so much at a crossroads, more at a time and place during this life journey where several forks are emerging ahead of us.
As air and water quality clears and improves, could we develop a 20/20 vision of a clearer, better future for all too?

What will make it harder and what will make it easier? I have some thoughts on this that I’ll share in my next post.