I am writing this while the entire planet is scrambling to deal with the novel Coronavirus contagion, which started around January of 2020. Most people are living solitary lives that could not have been imagined even a few weeks ago. We are all navigating our way into a whole new world affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. I have done a good amount of reading and online research on the subject to be qualified as a so-called "armchair epidemiologist," but still don't know a whole lot about the future.I was reading how some folks in China are now dealing with agoraphobia and won't leave their homes even though their outdoor living environment is deemed safe from the virus. Life as we knew it has been altered, and if survived, we will be living in a post-contagion world that we may not even be able to imagine, as we once could not imagine where we are now.

This all sounds like the opening of a sci-fi novel, which reflects how surreal our experience of dealing with this pandemic is. Many of us have the tendency to gravitate toward worst-case scenario outcomes when we don't know what to expect. The fear of the unknown has been the sponsoring thought for many of our ancient stories and ideas about the world. In general, fear is a primal emotion and it usually wins over other feelings simply because it has a major factor in the preservation of life, and we can credit it even as the primary reason for the continuum of our species. Hope, on the other hand, is directly associated with love, and is one of the main reasons for progress in life. Hope is the reason that all of the many thousands of patients under ventilators around the globe are taking their next breaths.

I would like to invite you to use your imagination and think of fear as a pair of eyeglasses with a red frame, and hope as a pair of glasses with a blue frame. Dealing with news and events in our lives, we should have access to both pairs, but know when and how to use them. These days, we mostly have been walking, talking, even sleeping with our red frames on. It's so much easier -- we don't want to be the stupid ones who ignore all the warning signs and end up causing harm to ourselves and others. In a way, it's even more comforting to keep looking at the world through that lens -- it's what the media is promoting as the sensible way to behave. However, I would like to encourage us not to forget about the blue pair either. It might sound cliche, but you can be sensible and logical, yet positive and hopeful all at the same time

I want you to think about every action as having a sponsoring thought or intention behind it, and I want to encourage us all to start wearing our blue glasses while navigating our way out of this (or any) crisis, to help us view the horizon of the future through the lens of hope. The news might be grim and alarming viewed through the red glasses, but at the same time, the planet as a whole is breathing and healing, which will be positive for the future of all beings on it. Our leaders have been meeting and have had long, exhausting discussions about how to curb our addiction to fossil fuels. Yet all the many years of effort by us, the most intelligent species on the planet, pale in comparison to what a microorganism has done for the planet in a short few months. The red glasses have a very thick lens to help focus on details, and the blue ones have a thinner lens that helps us perceive the bigger picture. Although we can't afford to be mindless and ignore all the valid concerns when dealing with any crisis, seeing the future through the lens of hope is what propels us forward. I know it is a simple concept, but it's also very effective when practiced consistently. I believe we need to carry both pairs of glasses with us, but hope we'll feel inspired to remember the blue ones and to use them more often, especially these days!

Be well,
Siamak