Hey, Humanity! COVID-19 Here. I Need to Chat with You

First of all, you and I are each part of this altruistic and balanced system of nature, and the fact is that neither of us is greater than the other in terms of our necessity as parts of the whole. I have been here as long as you have, maybe even longer. I’ve had some constraints that you don’t have, however, in that I can’t reproduce by myself, but I’ve been watching you. And I have to tell you I don’t like what I see.

You’ve plundered nature’s resources without giving anything back. Over the millennia you’ve managed to create societies where greed and the lust for wealth and power motivate everything you do. You think nothing of harming anyone in your way in order to get what you want when you want it. You have poised yourselves in a world so shattered that I’ve been pretty sure you were masterminding your own extinction. And that really scared me, because it could mean mine also.

Then, one day I found an opportunity. I was able to get myself inside one of you where I have been able to multiply in order to show you the folly of your ways. So far it’s going quite well with help of my quickly proliferating progeny. You’ve decided to try to contain us, but you’re going to have a bit of trouble there, because we’re teeny, silent and invisible. And fortunately for us, there are those among you are pretty sure I’m not worth worrying about, so they are merrily getting infected and helping me spread around among you. So far, so good.

Let me tell you what I’m seeing now. It’s bad and it’s good. There’s a lot of effort toward getting things back to normal (which will never happen, but more about that later). Your leaders are wasting your money trying to stimulate failing economies. What they don’t understand that this is the absolute wrong thing to do, because it really isn’t what most of you want. You don’t know that yet, but you’re beginning to get it.

One of my proudest achievements is that I’ve managed to separate you from each other. You call it social distancing. I call it putting you in the place I was before that generous human being let me in—isolated, alone, seemingly powerless. And it seems to be working, because so many of you are beginning

to notice some things happening.

The daily frenzy of life is slowing down and you’re noticing some pleasure and comfort in it. There is a huge spike in people helping others. More and more people are self-quarantining which in itself is a generous act toward the common good. Air pollution in China has reduced drastically since social distancing has decreased industrial waste. Swans and dolphins have returned to Venice canals because reduced traffic has quickly improved the water quality. On every level of society interesting discernments are being made and startling changes are manifesting. Positive changes. Things we’ve been trying to bring about but haven’t known how.

You may also have noticed that the political agenda is first and foremost to restore the economy in a frantic effort to quickly return things to what is being called “normal,” the state they are calling their privileged place in society. It’s being viewed as a kind of competition about which country makes progress first. But at the same time, nations are being forced to cooperate and collaborate together to try to stop me. An interesting conundrum. As we the people unite, governments see some virtue in it.

You’re also asking some very good questions. Do we really need all these things being produced that we’re programmed to buy the newest and most advanced version of? Do these things make us happy? When this is all over, do I want to return to the world as it was? If money isn’t everything, then what is? Could there be a higher meaning? Why haven’t we figured out how to live in peace? How long will I have to be separated from the ones I love?

As for me, the fact of the matter is I’m really sick (pun intended) of watching you suck all you can get out of nature and your selfish and hateful behaviors toward each other. I say, Enough! So I’ve decided to stick around for a while because it won’t be overnight that you’ll figure this all out. You need time to feel deep inside you the difference between your former world of separation and your new world of unity and connection. This takes time and you’re not used to that in your age of instant gratification.

Maybe you can think about a new definition of wealth—connections, loving and serving others, the privilege of being the generation that builds a new, harmonious society, a higher one than anything the earth has ever seen. You can change everything and still have all those things you enjoy that are now forbidden. All you need is a strong intention to create your world into this. But there is one more thing. You have got to do something about that bloated and ever-growing ego of yours. It corrupted your old world and it has to be managed in your new and integrated world. Say no to it. Let its urgings inspire you to go way above it, to that higher place were unity lives.

The alternative is to wait for one of my progeny, sooner to later, to find a willing human within which to reside, and do again what I’m doing. Only his picture won’t be nearly as pretty as the one of me that you see above. It will be scary and ugly because he will be like me on speed. He will have within him generations of mutations and will be uglier, more deadly and angrier than I am, and he’ll be a devoted killer. Wiping most of you out may by then be the only to fix the mess you’ve made.

I could go on for a very long time, but I’ll sign off. I need to tell you I feel pretty good about my mission being worth it, because the other thing I see in you is basic good will and a yearning for something better. So while you’re waiting for the time when I am “contained,” do a lot of thinking about what I’ve said so you’ll know what to do when it’s time to rebuild.