Disclaimer: I am not a scientist. I do not hold degrees in any of the subjects I discuss in my blog. I use this medium more like a personal journal rather than an information website. These are only my personal thoughts and reflections on things that are on my mind.
As the world continues to battle a deadly virus, I often wonder if any positives can result from a pandemic. I mean, the Universe, through quantum mechanics and such, has been proven to be based on duality. It is displayed everywhere. Light and darkness, negative and positive, and so on. The most poignant example during this strange time is life and death. Even in the terrible reality of the empty streets of quarantine and deserted grocery shelves, there has to be something good that we can focus on.
Here are a few things I consider positive results of the virus. I am conscious in the fact that there are many people whose list of positives would be much different than mine. People die daily and their families’ outlooks are more dire than what I am discussing here. I am fortunate enough to not yet know of anyone to experience any serious illness from the virus. I am absolutely empathetic for those that are suffering through the worse extremes of this horrible situation.
Better air quality.
Mandatory, voluntary and self imposed quarantines have emptied city streets. In densely populated areas, such as my hometown of Chicago, the deserted blocks of downtown are in stark contrast to the teeming community of only a few months ago. The effect is lost on those of us living in rural areas, as the spread out nature of these areas already create a kind of isolated existence. My closest neighbors are about a quarter of a mile away from me. Social distancing is my normal, everyday existence.
Because of this, air quality, though not perfect, is much higher than those in big cities. With virtually no cars on the streets for weeks, and even months, Nature has had time to clean herself up in those heavily populated areas. In this respect, the virus has benefited Mother Nature herself. It has given the Earth a breather and a much needed rest from this convoluted age of human existence.
Freedom of animals.
I’m not completely sure this can labeled a positive because there are some potentially dangerous outcomes that can arise from this situation. Imagine opening your front door to a mountain lion cruising down your block. Or a bear prancing through your backyard on its way to destroy you garbage cans.
These scenes and many others similar to those are occuring, I would imagine all over the world. With humans hiding behind doors from an invisible killer, Earth’s uprooted animal population are once again free to explore the land. Now, they are roaming the empty streets, effectively turning the tables on us by intruding on our land and disrupting our way of life.
Hopefully, the animals will refrain from harming us. However, if news stories of human being attacked by wild animals suddenly spike, we can only blame ourselves for destroying their natural habitats.
Reuniting of families.
In this age of human existence, we are mired in a technological age centered around social media. Our devices have become our main source for communication. We chose to immerse ourselves in them even when family members are in the same room. Instead of engaging in actual conversation with our families, we would rather text our friends or post pictures of anything we can conceive.
Enter COVID-19. The virus has forced the entire world indoors. Yes, we still have access to all of our devices, but the environment around us has changed inexplicably. Depending on the household, this can create a crowded and oppressive atmosphere. For families that aren’t the closest or have trouble getting along when all the members are present, this is a terrible situation indeed.
However, we now have the opportunity to mend fences, apologize for mistakes of the past, bond with siblings or cousins, face emotions that have been suppressed and those that are still volatile, and countless others. If we choose, we can learn things about our family, specifically and most importantly, our children that we previously had no idea of. It’s an opportunity to get close, to discover family values and to experience what a functional familial unit feels like.
But how many of us will do this?
How many of us want to do this?
Honest, up close view of relationships.
This one is for couples, especially those living alone together in a romantic relationship. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “You don’t really know a person until you live with them”. This is probably one of the greatest quotes I’ve ever heard. Because it is completely true.
In these times, it may be impossible to survive in a single income household, even with no children, and especially in big cities, where the cost of living can be astronomical. For this reason, alone time for couples are few and far between. Many work different shifts and hardly see each other, which prevents them from discovering the true personality of their mate, even while living together.
Well, the virus has solved that problem, at least temporarily. Slowly, the world is returning to normal and stores are reopening in some areas. But for a few months, couple were or are still forced to stay in close proximity to each other. I love my girlfriend of eight years very much, but if she wasn’t an essential worker, I don’t know how long I would’ve been able to keep my sanity.
I’m an introvert, so the lockdown isn’t really much different than my everyday existence. But if I had to share my time and space twenty-four hours a day with the same person for weeks on end, if would affect me greatly, especially regarding something I value greatly:
Alone time.
For those us that live alone or are fortunate enough to have a residence large enough for each family member to have their own room, the pandemic has given us an opportunity to get reacquainted with ourselves.
At a certain point, although it is difficult to believe in today’s society, there is only so much texting, streaming, snapping or chatting that a person can take. It will, and does, eventually get old and tiresome when we have unchecked access to something, whatever it is. We have all experienced growing sick and tired of something after constantly using or partaking in it, shown poignantly in the previous paragraphs.
So when we finally put that Galaxy down, turn off Netflix, or shut down the PlayStation, what we are left with is ourselves. Although brought upon by a deadly virus, we have a chance to study our behaviors, explore our own personalities (where we are sure to discover something new), and to create and/or maintain core values and a personal belief system.
This is very difficult to do, however. It requires being completely honest with yourself, which most of don’t even know how to do. We view ourselves based on what we think we are, not what we actually are. I believe that in order for us to truly live our best lives, we should explore our minds periodically. This is done by ‘unplugging’ for a period of time, to just be still and quiet, to just exist. Maybe during this trying period of social distancing, we can uncover the secrets and motivating desires of our own personalities.
In closing
This list of positives will be very different for a lot of you. Hopefully, I didn’t offend anyone. These are clearly my own personal views and insights. Take them lightly if the don’t apply to you and seriously if they do. We are definitely living in strange times, even if it has not affected me personally as of yet. Hopefully, this list will help you view things more positively in the wake of this terrible outbreak.
Jay Owens 