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DAILY DOSE OF REALITY

Monday, June 29, 2020
 
 
We need to thrive.
 
You can thrive, I can thrive, and our friends can thrive.
 
Because if we cannot thrive – what is the point of surviving, what is the point of being alive?
 
We need a miracle drug, the kind doctors prescribe – one pill, a daily dose, we take with our juice and vitamins every morning – washed down with morning coffee before delving into our newspapers.
 
Just one daily dose of reality.
 
Recovery takes time, takes attention/distraction from other things, and saps our energy all at the same time. But this isn’t a hurricane somewhere distant, or earthquake rubble somewhere along a known fault – line, it isn’t a failed journey across the water in stormy weather.
 
Simply asked, “Nobody saw this coming?”, but when those who did see it coming raised their alarm and call to action, nobody was listening.
 
There is no beginning, middle, or end to this time, this event, or an easy solution to an extraordinarily difficult problem set: treating those infected with the virus (4-5% death rate globally – so don’t get infected), finger-crossing in vaccine hope.
 
But no shot of vaccine will be in everybody’s arm soon.
 
Our interconnected gear-meshed global economy ground to a halt. Haltingly, partially restarted (survival is not assured).
 
We might have equivalent experience to the great-depression or a World War – or worse. Nobody knows. I’m not trying to be stuck-record here, because I believe there is a solution all of us CAN control. We cannot – by ourselves as lone voices or even as united voices – do much that impacts the larger collective good.
 
No, we CAN do better than that.
 
I’m not sermonizing, but suggesting we stay with the obvious, so let’s all control that. That means more than wearing masks, distancing, and sanitizing – of course, we can and ought to, but we need much more from each other right now. We need friendship and support – and that’s all lovely, but we need much more from each other right now.
 
We need to do everything we can to make our jobs, avocations, careers, businesses, hobbies, and causes thrive. None of this ‘hanging on by our fingernails thinking’ will do – sorry, there is no armchair view here. We all have to presume our government is bankrupt in terms of solutions, capability, and funds.
 
We all have to assume nobody is coming to rescue us. We all have to presume that no miracle cure can get here fast enough to save us. So, we need much more from each other right now.
 
C’mon now, you can do it – it’s Monday, go start something. Buy something. Sell something. Offer your services to someone. Offer something to someone. Don’t gouge. Don’t give it away. Be fair, be kind, be helpful, and be ready to lift anyone you can. Whenever you can. You’ll get better at it the more you practice. Start by being the first person to crack a smile, the first to say good morning, the first to shout out, “I’ll do it.”
 
We need much more from each other right now.
 
We need to ask/demand much more from ourselves.
 
It’s not one solution by many for all, its many people with their individual solutions which add up, which compound, and which can overcome any force.
 
What is lacking in leadership in every country right now, and the United Nations, W.D.O, and CDC have been marginalized by politicians who are hard campaigning cheerleaders, but right now, we need less cheer and more leader.
 
There has never been a more critical time for all of us to reach deep and control our future through our personal actions.
 
Nobody is coming to save us.
 
We must save ourselves.


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