In a matter of days, millions of people around the world changed their behavior. A recent Robcast by Rob and Kristen Bell opened my eyes to this important realization. What the environmental crisis lacked the power to effect, the COVID-19 pandemic achieved in the span of not decades or years, but weeks and days.
What does this say about us?
Well, it says we are capable of change. As Rob and Kristen pointed out, the paradigm that people don’t or won’t change is now shattered. We can change. We did change. And we changed very rapidly.
Those changes didn’t come lightly. We’ve all had to modify the ways in which we live, some to larger degrees than others. We’ve dealt with inconveniences. We’ve handled difficult transitions. We’ve responded with the full spectrum of emotions, sometimes actually happy to shelter in the comfort of our homes, sometimes overwhelmed by sorrow or fear. None of this has been easy. Yet we did it.
The fact that we did it so quickly points to another realization. Since we’ve proven that yes, we humans who gravitate toward comfort and pleasure can come together and make significant changes that have an impact on the entire world. In other words, there’s reason for hope.
Here’s hoping…