When The Going Gets Tough – The Tough Get Going

By now, the whole world has gone into panic mode about the Corona virus.  People going on panic buying binges of toilet paper, rice, pasta meals, hand sanitiser, soap, and fighting each other over them in supermarkets.  In fact, one shop assistant at Woolworths in Melbourne got stabbed during one such altercation recently.

When will it all end, and what can we all do about it?

The first thing we need to do is STOP PANICKING.  It helps no-one, and only makes the situation worse.  Many people are pointing the fingers at the virus saying that it’s bringing out the most ugliest side of humanity, but I think otherwise.

The second thing we need to do is REASSESS HOW WE DO THINGS.  Yes, it can be difficult with many cities around the world being put into lockdown (including my city of Brisbane) and several shops closing and many events either being postponed and cancelled.  This has affected me as a performing musician.  I was due to play a gig yesterday on the Gold Coast for an open mic night, but it had to be postponed because the event had the potential to attract over 100 punters.  Instead of panicking, I’m going to look into making some money off live streaming videos on YouTube and Facebook both as a solo artist and with my musical partner d-Wizz.  Instead of playing in pubs and clubs, I am going to email my musician friends and ask if I can do small private gigs at their places in their loungerooms and build up my profile from there.  And instead of hugging my friends and family, I just give them ankle taps or elbow bumps.

The third thing we need to do is realise that NOTHING lasts forever.  Things come to pass, not to stay.  Most likely, the virus pandemic will disappear just as suddenly as it came.  Humanity has survived The Black Death, SARS, Horse flu, bird flu, AIDS, HIV etc.  Even though I am a practicing Christian, I don’t buy into those crazy right-wing fundamnentalist bozos who say that Corona is a punishment from God.

Fourth is that we need to start spending more time with family and friends.  Our super hectic modern life has caused us to alienate our friends and family where work and being glued to internet devices is concerned.  Being put into lockdown means we can spend more time with people who matter to us the most.  Since the mid 1990s, our sense of family and community has become eroded.  A lot of us don’t talk to our families anymore.  We are very “busy” with work and/or other extra-curricular activities.  Now that many of us are having our work hours cut back, we can spend more downtime to do things that matter.  Sort out your home, spend some time with nature, if you are self-employed then work from home.  Family should ALWAYS come first.

Fifth is look after your diet, health and hygiene.  Drink up to 6 – 8 glasses of water a day.  Wash your hands before and after eating, and don’t touch your face.  This is not paranoia, this is plain common sense.  Instead of constantly trying to stock up at the grocery store, try going to markets for your food and make your own household products.  Maybe study some aromatherapy and use essential oils in water in spray bottles to freshen the air, or use as insect repellant (Pennyroyal oil is a very good one to get rid of fleas for instance, but don’t use it for massage).

Sixth is reduce, reuse, recycle.  Going green is no longer some crazy hippie thing, but a practical reality.  Most of us have three bins now – one for disposables, one for reusables and the other for garden rubbish.  Look at living sustainably.  Don’t litter.  If you’re going out to a park for a picnic for example, take your rubbish home with you and you can go to a bottle bank to reuse and recycle bottles, cans and cartons and make some money back from it.  d-Wizz does this – he collects used bottles and cartons and containers that people dump in bins or on the streets and periodically takes them to bottle banks and makes a bit of cash from it.

Seventh is when the pandemic is over, move on.  Don’t go back to how you might have lived before it came about.  Look at it as maybe being a blessing in disguise.  Designate your time and priorities into doing things that really matter, and stop spending your time and money on things that don’t.