A New Dawn

Dear Diary,

 

How are you? I am doing just fine. I guess I can say that given that there is so much chaos in the world around me at this time.

 

Ever since the deadly virus has afflicted millions around the globe there is a sense of unnerving uncertainty that is gripping the world on so many fronts, be it economic, humanitarian, political or social. Never had I thought in my worse dreams that I or my generation would experience such a devastating loss. But here I am. A witness to all this ... a mere spectator ... like so many others.

 

While I am only coming to terms with the insurmountable numbers that have lost their lives, a part of me has started to make way to accept the situation for what it is. The loss on all fronts concerns me, yet what concerns me the most is the loss to humanity. It concerns me to read reports that indicate the probable misjudgments and self-centered attributes of a selected few in authority whose decisions have brought the entire human race to its knees.

 

It makes me feel helpless when I see that the efforts taken by our civilians are throttled by a few individuals and that there is a shameless display of interpersonal name-calling even in the time of crisis which indicates a sheer loss of objectivity towards solving the problem. It makes me very sad to gauge that if balance is not restored, a weak, confused and survival centrist generation will take root on this planet and I will not be happy to live in such a world.

I try my best to refrain to come to a conclusion or make any judgment about people or places or countries or parties based on singular incidents, but each day my potential to stay unaffected is being challenged. It is as if I am being pushed against a brick wall. And yet, every day I make it a point to sleep with the hope of a new dawn.

 

There is one thing that I keep telling myself and I hope people around me also would be to a small or large extent contemplating something on similar lines. I feel we all need to use this time for 'wise' reflection. Of who we are, what are our needs, what makes us happy, how do we treat those that we love and those that we don't and why can't we love unconditionally and be human. Why is it that we displace our insecurities and dissatisfaction with others? Why can't we be happy when someone else is happier than us? We really need to think about these things.

 

I think this QUIET that has been forced upon us during the lock-down, this absence of honking horns and vehicles and trains is really calling us to see the silence with which this planet was created. Everything else that we use, or, so to say abuse, is man-made. We are not aware of our needs and so we whine for more and eventually create more damage. I am not against development or abundance, but isn't it worth reflecting how much is it that we need?

 

Since the beginning of the lock-down, I have been particularly perturbed by the news that is running on the news channel and social media which depicts the wild animals coming on the streets and the humans being in their homes, locked up. In a way is it not a reversal? For years our past generations and even we have been visiting the zoos and buying tickets to see these animals locked up in cages. And now it is the opposite. I am not an animal activist or something... but somehow this situation has yet again awakened in me the one principle that I try to live my life by no matter how difficult the situation is ... Don't do unto others what you would not like done to yourself. Learn to respect each person for who is, where he is, the way he is. We are no one to decide who should be doing what. Our only prerogative, if it may be, is, to live our life the way we want. And that can well be done peacefully without snatching from others.

 

These days when I go to buy essentials like milk from the dairy, and if I see only three packets remaining on the counter, and if I have been asked to get two packets, I return back with one packet thinking that maybe there would be someone in the neighborhood who will need it more than my family. I do not mean to boast about myself, but what has startled me is that I would not have reacted in such a way had this crisis not been there. This difficult time has really enabled me to understand what it means to think about someone else when in reality you are never going to benefit from that person or there is no chance that the person can return the favor that you are doing. I am happy that this situation has brought me closer to the human in me and that is all that I wish for everyone around on the other side of this pandemic.

A new sunrise, a better world.

 

I really look forward to it.

I hope, you too!

 

Until I write next,

Much love,

Soulstar.