The fact that I’m even writing this message for future generations one hundred years from now proves how optimistic I am. Things seem like absolute shit in our time right now. We are more divided than ever. We're constantly on the brink of war. Those in power are completely out of touch with the common person. It seems like things will have to get worse before they get better.
But alas, humanity, with all of its blemishes, does one thing very well and that one thing is we adapt and we survive. I’m fairly confident that we’ll figure out a way to get past all the hurdles we’re facing in 2022. Life is worth it and we are worth it.
During these past two years I’ve said numerous times how much I wished there were more personal accounts/advice from individuals who survived the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. Unfortunately if there was any of that it’s been lost to time. Can you imagine how valuable some kind of a playbook would have been to us during the struggles of Covid-19?
Although I can’t go back in time I can jot down my thoughts, feelings, and advice gleaned from the experiences I’ve gone through these past few years. These pandemics appear to be once-in-a-century events. If the cycle repeats itself, sometime around 2117-2120 will be the next one. I will be long gone but with a fair amount of luck this Hive blockchain will have survived in some way, shape, or form and future generations will be able to have access to this.
An Important Message To Those Suffering Through The Twenty-Second Century Pandemic
How I wish I could see your future world through something other than my imagination. I imagine your world to, in many ways, be better, more equitable, and hopefully more peaceful. Many of you long to live a simpler life but remember nostalgia is an intoxicating and distorting emotion. The past isn't nearly as wonderful as you think. Embrace the time you live in and stay as present and be as mindful as possible. It’s my sincere hope that humanity has evolved beyond what we were during my lifetime.
This pandemic will teach you a great many things. Most of them are sad but, with the proper perspective, you can learn positive lessons that will serve you well for the remainder of your days.
1. Treasure your friends and your loved ones.
Treasure and keep tabs on those who are close to you, especially the elderly and those who aren’t particularly in the best of health. Treat each interaction with them as it will be your last. These next few years will teach about loss and will make you realize that nothing is forever. You will be taught the true fragility of life and also of friendships. People will become increasingly extreme and kooky, this kind of event does this to people but love them anyway. Unfortunately, many of those people who were your friends before the pandemic won’t be your friends after it’s all over. Try not to take this personally or blame them. This ordeal will change everyone in some way and sometimes this change simply means they aren’t compatible with the same people as they once were. Celebrate the good times you shared and treasure those memories but learn to make new friends. Mourn your losses, treasure those good memories, then move forward at your own pace.
2. Become more frugal and resourceful.
Plant a garden, learn to forage, keep chickens, set a budget, preserve your own food. Diversify savings and investments as much as possible, with pandemics inevitably comes financial volatility. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were saviors for a lot of people in our time (2020). Brainstorm now about how you can create several income streams to keep your family afloat during what might be years of financial difficulty. I now understand why survivors of the Great Depression (1930's) stuffed money in their mattresses long after the crisis was over. Trauma scars us deeply and can stay with us for a long time if it's not properly addressed and processed.
3. Trust but verify.
There will be societal chaos, confusion, infighting. Be aware that those in power may try to exploit you when you’re at your most vulnerable. Sadly, sociopaths are drawn to positions of power and it’s in their nature to exploit weaknesses. Above all, if you do take nothing else away from this advice please let it be this…learn how to think critically. Do not take everything you’re being told as the truth. Scrutinize every single thing the media and those in power are telling you during this pandemic and ask yourself what ulterior motives they might have for doing so. Pay attention to your gut instinct, always. When in doubt err on the side of caution. Wear a face mask while indoors or in a crowd…especially during the first and most deadly waves of the epidemic. Oh and wash ‘yo got damn hands (an inside joke from one of my pandemic experiences that you can read more about here.)
4. It will take a toll.
This pandemic will age you and it will fundamentally change you and everyone else around you. If you’re an adult you’ll likely look and feel like you’ve aged a decade in just a few years. Many children will, sadly, lose their innocence. Few things will be the same on the other side of this ordeal. It will feel like you're living in a different timeline altogether and in many ways you will be. Learn how to become at peace with it. You can waste years wishing things could have remained the same or you can view this as a kind of reset. You have no choice but to embrace it and use it to your advantage.
5. Take care of you.
Take better care of your health and well-being. There’s no better time than now to take personal responsibility for your general health. Set fitness goals, meditate, journal, don’t keep your emotions bottled up inside.
6. Take advantage of this rare pause.
Start planning immediately for your post-pandemic life. Remember that dream you always had but never pursued. Do that now! This downtime is a once in a century opportunity. Your life will be on pause for years. Use this time to learn a new skill or another language. Plan a future trip. You must have something to look forward to. Pick a destination and learn everything you can about it and make it a goal to travel there as soon as travel bans are lifted as a reward to yourself. Nothing, and I mean nothing, will help you get through tough times like setting goals and planning for a brighter future. Read those books you've been meaning to and don't forget to take a deep breath from time to time.
7. Be prepared for a long haul.
This pandemic will go on longer than you think. There will be many waves and mutations of this virus. Just when you think it’s subsiding a new wave will hit. Count on your life being disrupted for three years, more or less. Study past pandemics (1918 and 2020), the data is there in regards to how viruses evolve and how society reacted to it. This current one will likely follow the very same pattern.
8. Easy does it.
Be kind. Go easy on yourself and those around you. Trauma is strange in that when we’re truly in survival mode we don’t notice its effects. While we’re in the thick of it we feel alert and we trudge through to meet the next set of challenges. The trauma will really begin to rear its head after the worst of the pandemic is past. You might feel anxious, sad, angry, intolerant, or irritable for no apparent reason. These negative emotions are trauma surfacing from the horrific things you’ve had to endure. Cut yourself and those around you some slack. Give people time and space to let them heal at their own pace.
9. Support local businesses.
If your pandemic is anything like ours was small, local businesses will be hit extremely hard. Please support them throughout this ordeal as best you can. They are a very important component of the fabric of our society and everything will be better if they survive.
9. Life will go on.
Eventually this will all come to an end, likely in around three years. Be prepared for what is on the other side, which is probably close to a decade of healing. You’re craving friendship and you’ll want to socialize and make up for lost time but getting those years back is impossible. Learn how to agree to disagree with those people in your life who followed a different approach than you did during the pandemic. You’ve already lost years, make the most of the time you have left. Don't waste any more of your limited time on Earth to hate and division. It was an extremely scary time, as you will see, and I would like to think that we all did our best.
What advice would you give future generations facing the next pandemic? Please answer in the comments below or use this as a writing prompt for your own post. (Please use "#blockchainmemoryproject" tag if you do.)
Poetry should move us, it should change us, it should glitch our brains, shift our moods to another frequency. Poetry should evoke feelings of melancholy, whimsy, it should remind us what it feels like to be in love, or cause us to think about something in a completely different way. I view poetry, and all art really, as a temporary and fragile bridge between our world and a more pure and refined one. This is a world we could bring into creation if enough of us believed in it. This book is ephemera, destined to end up forgotten, lingering on some dusty shelf or tucked away in a dark attic. Yet the words, they will live on in memory. I hope these words become a part of you, bubble up into your memory when you least expect them to and make you feel a little more alive.
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