The Eye of the Storm

These are crazy days: we are experiencing another surge of the Covid-19 virus. Just when everyone is getting used to life post-lockdown, now suddenly the treat of another one is looming ahead. It looks like I'm going to be holed up at home for some time to come.

What have we learned during these trying times of the pandemic? One, we can actually live with a lot less. We don't really need the superficial luxuries of dining out with family and friends, going to the movies or flying overseas for holidays to really appreciate life. 

Secondly, it is alright to fall down a rung or two financially, as long as one is not destitute and still has a roof over one's head. We are so used to upward mobility that we forget that our parents and grandparents used to live with a lot less and yet, they still managed to lead meaningful lives.  

We all need to learn to eat the humble pie. High-flyers who have lost their jobs are now grateful to be able to earn at least something to cover their daily expenses. Corporations who used to dominate the news with their overseas expansions and new product launches, now are trying hard to keep afloat and desperately restructuring loans with their anxious creditors.

The pandemic is resetting the economy. Many companies will inevitably fold. Many small businesses already have.  Those who can still survive have to make do with a lot less income. Yes, we all learn gratitude: counting our blessings rather than lamenting about our losses.

In the US, things are getting more acute with President Trump--already infected with the Covid-19 virus and supposedly recovered--is behaving like a runaway training, holding super-spreader rallies that further exacerbates the already bad pandemic there which had claimed more than 214,000 American lives. And we are less than 4 weeks to the US presidential election, with a possibility of a very messy outcome.

Uncertainty clouds the entire world. UK is considering another lockdown; cases are rising in Europe again and winter is approaching with its expected threat of driving up infection and mortality rates, as is always the case with respiratory diseases.

We are all being tested--each and every one of us, in our own unique ways. The pandemic brings different challenges for everyone.  We just need to brace ourselves for the coming storm of uncertainty. And in times like this, it is comforting to know that deep down inside, there's a place that one can find refuge. There one stares at the eye of the storm.