Tag: coronavirus

The Triumph of the Human Spirit

Posted on by japineda

“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5.

The last two years are without question the most unusual years of the 21st century. With surprise, alarm, disorder, and panic as a backdrop, the ordinariness of life stands out. I want, therefore, to celebrate the normal rather than the above-normal. To that end, I want to recognize someone who didn’t just go above and beyond this last year, she also went below and beneath. By this I mean she kept and maintained normalcy in the day-to-day life during a very chaotic time. She is someone who in her normalcy provided a glimpse for why the human spirit will triumph in the end.

Like a large portion of working professionals, her employers required my wife Jane to switch to working from home. It was psychologically and practically a disruptive event. Yet, her only real complaint was that she was less productive at home because the wi-fi speed of our internet was slow. Gradually, however, she adjusted to the slower rhythm even though it produced longer times spent at “work.” After a few weeks, she appreciated the rewards of being home. These included things she could let go, such as the need to commute, to dress-up, to be punctual. It also included things she didn’t know she missed, such as the comfort of being home, taking a break, snacking, catching up on the news at any moment. The result was a gradual switch and change. She was still not as productive, but she was enjoying her routine much more.

My wife suffered health problems following a trip to Australia in 2018. She was, therefore, in a high-risk group for catching the coronavirus. Because of this we decided, from the start of the pandemic in March 2020, to have her avoid contact with people as much as possible. She stayed home and away from crowds, and did most of her social contact through phone and zoom. It fell to me to do the grocery shopping and other activities requiring leaving the house. She went along with little complaining, and once again transformed the normal and naturalness of her social life into a constricted and cartoonish version of it. As the months rolled by, it became clear this new life would be less temporary than we imagined. She adjusted and did not grow depressed or anxious. She turned to her faith to provide the strength to bear the negativity and transmute it into a hopeful future. Her adaptiveness was a show of strength that bolstered my spirit.

I want to recognize my wife, Jane, whom I love and admire, as someone who did the nearly impossible – maintain a normal life and a confident purpose these last two years of the pandemic. By doing so, she showcased the strength and resiliency in all of us. In a similar way, many of you persevered and now look forward to a more normal future. Likewise, the triumph of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris this year was a victory of the American spirit over the darkness that had descended over our country. While the dark clouds have not totally dissipated, it is easier to see the sunlight.

We have been through a lot during this pandemic, but there is clearly a human spirit that is indomitable. We must, above all, keep the optimistic flames going by celebrating every act of normalcy we can, along with acts of kindness and acts of love!

Trusting Stillness

Posted on by japineda

Life is a string of moments. And every moment contains within it its own death, in an unbroken chain of arisings and disappearances. Wise individuals have called this the play of consciousness.  Human beings are expressions of this consciousness and entangled in its dance. Life cannot happen without death, as endings are the inevitable consequence of beginnings. And yet, beneath these arisings and disappearances lies what many seers have perceived as the unchanging, unconditioned, and eternal stillness. This is the realm in which most of us would place our God, Source, or Creator.

As we follow the turbulence of this moment, the increasing protests amid a deadly coronavirus pandemic, the play of consciousness is in full display. We perceive the same recurring dance; the same passion and frustration expressed before; the same sentiments of hopelessness which have occurred previously. And it disheartens us that the cycle seems interminable. If the expectation is a spontaneous resolution of this cycle, this is unlikely to happen as long as we remain trapped in the dance itself. The sole permanent and effective solution is to step outside of it and place ourselves in the hands of the grace encompassing the dance itself-the eternal stillness.

Mystics are not the only ones capable of relating to this unfamiliar and metaphysical experience. Receiving this grace is our birthright. It’s a matter of how sincere and willing we are to receive it. We call it a miracle when an individual hits bottom, be it a drug addict, alcoholic, or any other lost soul. At that moment, they encounter no more excuses for their behavior and accept as the solution the stillness that was always accessible. Touching stillness involves admitting that something greater than ourselves has control, and turning our life and trust over to it. Hitting bottom to recognize this truth is only necessary if we are stubborn. Indeed, we can accept it now, in this moment.

How do we achieve this?  There is one indispensable thing. It is to recognize how we construct what we are, the personality we take ourselves to be, the ego, the self-centered reasoning. And to know that it is this incessant activity creating our problems. Let go of self-centered thinking, ego-self, that “little you,” and realize you are in fact already part and parcel of the eternal stillness. Let go of the conceptual mind animating and giving birth to the endless arisings and disappearances of self-centered thought and allow truth to shine through. Life is a choice and we are at an inflection point where we must choose, go beyond ego, and trust the stillness we are.

The Pause

Posted on by japineda

Nature has given humans a reprieve. The Covid-19 pandemic, as ravaging as it has been, is a warning shot across the bow. It declares, “You cannot maintain the unthinking, callous, insensitivity to your ecology or there will be serious repercussions.” To drive the point, Nature has released the puniest of creatures, a coronavirus. And in the blink of an eye, this slightest of avenging angels has crippled the world, brought economic powerhouses to their knees, and forced us to pause.

For the preceding thousands of years our relationship nature, to other creatures, and to the natural environment developed from a collaborative to a dominant relationship. As we became more successful in establishing a way of life beneficial solely to ourselves, we built up a sense of ownership over this ecology. Today, our efforts give less and less thought to the greater ecosystem in which we live. We live in ignorant bliss, assuming a separation from the environment that is delusional. Instead of engaging in synchrony with it, what we have done is to pollute, spoil, and eradicate other species. We have run roughshod over the sole home we have. The coronavirus is an admonition that we are part of this ecosystem and our activities can boomerang to dismantle the castles-in-the-air we have formed.

Nature, in its wisdom, has offered a gift, a moment to pause, to reflect, to reassess, to turn around before it is too late. If we reconsider, we understand that our old ways lead to destruction. Nature has presented us with a prescient vision. We have seen the toxic pollution in large sectors of India and China withdrawn. It has allowed those with eyes to see that the radiant sky is blue and not gray. Is this warning too late? How do we reverse the protracted periods of unthinking, callous apathy to our ecology? What is the alternative pathway? At what cost?

The pessimism is that we don’t learn the lesson. I deduce this from the actions of a minority who contend that this pause must end and we must return to our normal life. This is a reflective instinct, the same blissfully ignorant drive to maintain what is beneficial only to us and which has contributed to all the troubles. There is no recognition what an aberration such a “normal” life has been.  The optimism is that another group of people will take the warning to heart, change behavior, and live more in synchrony with nature. Perhaps that will be enough to spare us. As Robert Frost wrote in The Road Not Taken, it is a turning point for everyone-to take the road less traveled. If we succeed, we will all sing along with the poet:

“I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

Eco-Friendly Walking

Posted on by japineda

In this moment of covid-19, coronaviruses, social distancing, masks, and gloves, it seems appropriate to consider a walking exercise that is also good for the habitat. Since we are adjusting to stay at home orders and sheltering in place, the need for exercise has become critical. What many of my neighbors have turned to is strolling around the area. Walking is a fantastic way to exercise and enjoy the pleasant weather. As I started my walking routine around the neighborhood, it surprised me how often I came across garbage on the roadway. A diversity of objects that belonged in a trash can and not on the street confronted me. I saw disposed Kleenex tissues, gloves, soda cans, gum wrappings, plastic bags, cigarette butts, etc. It didn’t take me long to realize that I could get my needed walking exercise but also contribute a bit to cleaning up the environment. All I had to do was bring along a grocery sack and collect some of this rubbish. It seemed like a worthy goal. Eco-friendly walking in the time of coronavirus seemed like a healthy, satisfying behavior, or so I told myself.

But I faced three obstacles:

The first obstacle involved the small to medium-sized sacks I brought along, which proved too small for the amount of rubble I encountered. My middle- to upper-middle class neighborhood had seemed clean prior to this. My blindness to the street garbage took me by surprise. It’s true that I have cleaned up other areas where I fill up a regular trash bag much more rapidly. But this territory is where I lived and it surprised me. I now carry larger and multiple medium-sized bags.

The second obstacle involved the repeated bending over required to pick up the items. My 60+ year old back began complaining almost as soon as I started. I fixed this easily by purchasing a hardy hand-held trash picker or grabber for less than $10. This eliminated the demand to bend and the need to wear gloves to handle the item, making it a more efficient and hygienic process.

The third obstacle I faced were emotional feelings about doing something that is done only as part of an environment clean-up event. To overcome the discomfort, embarrassment, and fear, I convinced myself my actions were the “right thing to do” for the ecosystem. Fortunately, the more I do it, the less the anxiety it raises.

Now I go out for my morning walk while sheltering in place and the neighborhood looks cleaner.

A Study in Humility?

Posted on by japineda

We use myths, legends, fables, folktales, fairy tales, and parables as ways to understand momentous and frightening events. Parables speak of ordinary mortals performing sometimes extraordinary actions. In trying to find meaning in the covid-19 pandemic, I searched for an appropriate parable. The closest that springs to mind is the biblical story of David and Goliath. But in this case, the evil character is the small one. So if the moral roles are reversed with covid-19, perhaps the teaching this time is more about humility.

A virus is about 120 nanometers in size, where a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. There are 25,400,000 nanometers in one inch. If you do the math, it means over 200,000 viruses could crowd into one inch of space.  What this suggests is that this pathogen is a very tiny entity. And yet, covid-19, a coronavirus, has brought humankind to its knees. Democracies, dictatorships, and everything in between yielded to the power of this microorganism.

Viruses attach to droplets of saliva when a human coughs or sneezes. Scientists estimate that about 3,000 such beads form a single cough and ten times as many in a sneeze. And the speed at which they race out of the mouth approaches between 50-200 miles per hour. When someone is sick, the droplets in a single cough may contain two hundred million individual virus particles. This number will vary dramatically as the immune system clears out the pathogen. 

Covid-19 is infectious and causes respiratory tract problems ranging from mild to lethal. For those already suffering from a respiratory illness, such as asthma, or a compromised immune system, it puts them in a vulnerable category. To date, over 3 million humans throughout the earth experienced coronavirus and close to a quarter million people succumbed to it.

Regardless of how much our ego distorts the accurate image of our character, covid-19 shows us how vulnerable we are to the tiniest of organisms. Despite every society implementing the only tool at their disposal for fighting this invisible enemy, social distancing, it has been an upsetting experience. Social or physical distancing is something contrary to our social nature, yet we followed the recommendations and are seeing the end of the storm. At least for now. But the virus has made crystal clear that although humbling, the one thing we can count on as a species is our inimitable spirit!

Out of the Many, One

Posted on by japineda

The statistical models used to estimate the number of coronavirus infections, and resulting deaths, assumed that only about half of the U.S. population would follow the physical distancing guidelines. Surprisingly the vast majority of Americans took heed. As a consequence, the predicted number of deaths is projected to be about one-tenth of what the models predicted. The question is why? Why did so many fellow citizens follow what is essentially the opposite tendency that drives human social behavior? Why were Americans who value their independence and freedom so compliant at following the guidelines? How were we able to give up our treasured sports, entertainment, shopping, churches, and other activities that represent the essence of who we are?

One obvious answer is that we faced a life and death situation unlike any we’ve encountered in the recent past. Nothing focuses the mind as much as our imminent demise. A disease that is highly contagious, deadly, essentially everywhere, and for which we have no cure is terrifying. Undoubtedly, the coronavirus pandemic scared the bejesus out of us. A less obvious answer is that we actually learned lessons from other countries. Perhaps not so much from China, where it all started, but from Italy, which is more similar to our culture and was devastated. It was frightening to watch the Italian health system be overwhelmed with covid-19 cases and the accumulating death count.

But the least obvious explanation is that for one brief moment we recognized our shared humanity. In a blink of an eye we realized our true nature, that we are all connected and that what you do affects me and vice versa. While most of the other factors focused our mind on the problem, it was the realization of our common humanity that produced the promising results. And although it is painful to lose so many, in the end we remain focused and committed as one. This singular moment in our history made the traditional motto of the United States come to life: E pluribus unum –”Out of many, one.”

It is my hope this learned experience remains fresh in our minds for a long time. If it does, it has the potential to radically change us for the better.