COVID as AFGO

Crisis turns existing ways of operating inside-out or upside-down, and that, my friends, might have have a silver lining. COVID may contain within it an AFGO, "another f#&king growth opportunity." While not what I would choose if I had a say in how life should go, this pandemic presents us with an opportunity to overcome "separation syndrome," or the idea that individuals are not affected by, and responsible for, other humans and our natural world. COVID, for one thing, underscores the idea that the health of others affects the health of each of us as individuals. The peeing in the pool analogy works well in this case. If we support behaviors that increase infection, that condone people getting sick, sooner rather than later, we too, more likely, will be sickened. We are connected whether we want to admit it or not. We are, as one good book says, our brother's (and sister's) keeper. It's time to re-assess how well the myth of radical individualism, of taking care of me-me and letting the rest of the world go to perdition, serves us, and look to composing a story that values the common good, that restores a social contract, a worldview that bypasses the idolatry of the self. It ain't just about you no more, and that might not be such a bad thing.