Entries in the 'Coronavirus' Category

The Fourth Vaccination

627.1Israel is introducing the 4th dose of the coronavirus vaccine. And people ask, how can it be that we have been fighting the pandemic for two years and in no way are managing to overcome it? Will it continue indefinitely, one vaccination after another?

The best specialists around the world have been looking for a solution for two years, so much money has been invested in these studies and we still cannot defeat this tiny virus. It surprises us every time.

The fact is that this problem is not technical, but biological, at the degree of the human structure. The problem is inside the person! After all, a virus is genetic material, the most complex thing we have. The human body, a biological cell, is the most difficult object to study, the most complex material.

Why can’t we handle the coronavirus? Because we don’t know for what purpose it appeared. We don’t know what cells and intercellular exchange exist for.

We don’t know what anything exists for, we just know that it is. And that is why we cannot unravel the mystery of life, the meaning of life, even of a small cell. And since we don’t know what every cell in man and in general in the whole of nature is for, we don’t understand what is happening.

We don’t know what the coronavirus came for, and therefore, we can’t defeat it. Some new biological material appears, which has its own life, but why did it arise? Why did it suddenly reveal itself right now but did not manifest before? Has it been dormant somewhere for millions of years or did it not even exist?

It’s as if we were looking at some unknown machine and didn’t understand what it was designed for, who made it, and how it could be used. We notice the virus only because it begins to interfere with us. Otherwise we wouldn’t have noticed it at all.

The virus comes in order to awaken us to correction, which means, to rise above our egoism, the desire to receive pleasure for ourselves without taking into account the desires of other people. So maybe we ourselves awaken this virus and force it to come out of hibernation?

If we asked the virus what it wants from us, it would answer that it has an important mission. In nature, nothing exists aimlessly, and therefore, the duty of the virus is to have a negative impact on us. Apparently we have committed such actions that now we need such an impact of the virus. Only it can help us improve.

And that’s why it’s very simple to get rid of the virus: We need to start taking care of each other, get closer to each other, and check how this affects all the viruses around us. You will see that the virus will disappear. Let’s try it! What do we have to lose? At least it won’t get any worse.

The very first recipe is to fix the relationships between us, to get closer to each other, and to cleanse our society of egoistic laws, and so move forward until full recovery.
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From KabTV’s “Look from the Inside” 12/27/21

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We Had Fun And That’s Enough

961.1In the News (The Atlantic): Why Are People Nostalgic for Early-Pandemic Life?”

“Pandemic fatigue is fueling a bizarre sense of longing.”

Deep in the throes of the late-stage pandemic, millions of young people have grown to miss this time early last year. Their longing is captured in TikToks and YouTube videos that romanticize the trends, obsessions, and sounds of 18 months ago. These ‘early-pandemic aesthetic’ creators have built an online community tied together by a yearning for a time when the world seemed united in facing an uncertain future. …

“James Ikin, a 25-year-old in London,…’Back then it was just pure and simple,’Ikin told us. ‘You’re locked down, and this is what life is going to be for the foreseeable future for absolutely everybody. Whereas now you’re trying to plot a path forward … and it makes life more complicated again.’ …

“Sophie Feldman, a 22-year-old college student from Chicago, remembers scrolling through TikTok one day in August 2020 … . Lying in bed, she turned on her camera and recorded what became one of the most popular videos of the genre: …Feldman rolls her eyes and stares into the distance, blinking blankly. …

 “It just sounds like a fever dream, like time isn’t real,” Feldman said. The cultural moments she calls out in her video felt like distant memories, but they had started just a few months before. Apparently more than 1 million other TikTok users felt the same sense of wistfulness (the clip has more than 4 million views and more than 1 million likes). ‘Ahh the hopeful part of quarantine’ and ‘Why do i kinda miss it,’ read the top replies. Scanning the comments, Feldman saw note after note of melancholy. ‘We were just feeling nostalgic for this period of time where we felt such togetherness, even though we were physically isolated,’ she said. ‘And I feel like that has dissipated over the past year and a half.’

Comment: Some conclude that today we are even lonelier.

My Response: Of course!

Comment: Today we have come out of our apartments where we were imprisoned and we are lonelier and the future is more uncertain.

My Response: Still, the pandemic taught us, it did not allow us to use our huge egoism. Otherwise, we would have driven ourselves into even greater stagnation. I believe that the pandemic has brought great benefits.

Question: So you have a very clear understanding that it came with an absolutely precise purpose?

Answer: Naturally. How can such a phenomenon pass without a goal, without a definite internal plan? Nature has everything according to plan. It has a beginning and an end connected together, and clearly goes from one end to the other. Depending on the reaction of humanity, we go through these states. We could have gone faster, better, and more easily with a much kinder result.

Comment: I want to reconstruct the events a little bit. We were connected, we worked, we flew to visit each other, we somehow moved around. And suddenly we were told: “Enough!”

My Response: Yes. We’ve had fun and that’s enough.

Question: We were separated, put in our apartments, the work places closed, tourist trips to each other, and so on. And all this was for what?

Answer: For us to try and realize whether we needed the kind of life we were in. Now the problem is whether we will return to this or not. There are those who resist and do not want to return. We hear and see it. And there are those who seem to agree.

Question: For us to return to the old connections?

Answer: Yes. But it will no longer be the same connections, it will no longer be the same pursuit and competition.

Question: Will there be any caution?

Answer: Not only caution, there will be a thing of doing everything at half strength, from the inability to do otherwise because we are practically forced to work. Just as slaves were forced to work in the fields, so we are forced to work in all these modern jobs today. We are struggling, but in general, we will have to return to our offices.

Question: You think that the question will arise, why is all this necessary at all?

Answer: This question is already arising.

Question: Was it important for the pandemic to lead us to this question?

Answer: This is the result of the pandemic, what it wanted to achieve and achieved. We’ll see what’s ahead of us. All this is just the beginning.

Question: Why do people have nostalgia for the beginning of the pandemic? They say: “We didn’t know what would happen then, but there was some kind of unity.” Why was there unity in the break?

Answer: Because we all found ourselves facing some kind of external threat that worked for all of us, against all of us, it doesn’t matter. And in this we felt together. It united us somehow, put everyone together in front of this whole disease, the virus. And it felt good.

Question: Does a person need this record? It shows that this is written in a person now.

Answer: Entrepreneurs and others are fighting to erase this record. But along with this, another wave rises, which says: “We don’t want to erase it, it’s good for us. We are in this state closer to each other and are more pleasant to each other.”

Question: Are you more for this wave?

Answer: Neither for this nor for that. As much as the second wave is more pleasant, the one that does not want to return to its metal machines, I think neither this nor that is correct. We must first realize what kind of future we want in general. And, first of all, what kind of relationship we want between us. And then we will choose.

Question: So the most important thing is awareness?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What will we choose then?

Answer: If we are aware, then we will choose life, life where we help each other in connection with each other and exist for this.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/4/21

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“From The Nadir To The Zenith In 2022” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “From the Nadir to the Zenith in 2022

2021 has been a tumultuous year. Covid-19 is still raging with recurring waves, the summer saw unprecedented fires in numerous places around the world alongside equally unprecedented floods, and earthquakes and volcanic eruptions seem to have been more frequent this year than in most other years. Meanwhile, international tensions escalated between the US and China, the US and Russia, Europe and Russia, and tensions over Taiwan, the South China Sea, and in Syria have risen to near military clashes. To make matters worse, the global economy was hampered by a severe shortage of computer chips, and supply chains around the world have been disrupted by recurring lockdowns.

Surprisingly, there is a (relatively) easy way to reverse the negative trajectory. We can rise from the nadir to the zenith much faster than we can imagine if we commit to just one thing, though it is harder to do than it seems at first glance: We need to relate to everything that happens as an incentive to bring us closer to each other. If we change our approach to everything that happens to us and around us, we will see how life takes us on a pleasant stream toward bliss.

Why did I say that it is only relatively easy? Our ego gets in the way; it does not let us come close to one another. The ego is the reason people are alienated from each other, and it will not give up its control over our hearts without a fight.

We can defeat our ego, but we cannot do it by ourselves. To achieve this, we must use two instruments: our social environment and our intellect. The intellect is the easier one to use. Currently, we are oblivious to the consequences of our actions. Some of us are conscious of the environmental price we pay for our wrong doing, but very few are aware that we are connected not only on the biological level, but also on the emotional and mental levels just as much as on the physical level.

Just as mistreatment of our physical environment is detrimental to all of us, mistreatment of our social environment has (at least) equally detrimental consequences. Now that people are aware of the need to preserve the physical environment, it is time to become aware of the need to cultivate positive social environments. Just as we are dependent on each other for the water we drink and the food we eat, we are dependent on each other for the words we say and the thoughts we think, which in turn affect our mental and emotional condition.

To become aware of our social interdependence, we must change our entire environment. We cannot expect people to think that consideration is good when the idols that the media promotes are self-centered and promote only their own image. At school, on social media, and on every means of mass communication, we must promote prosocial values.

If we learn to value those who promote solidarity and mutual consideration, our communities will look very different from how they do today. We want to curb gun violence, drug abuse, and social ills, but instead of curing society, we are only fighting the symptoms. We can heal the society by bringing people together rather than keeping them a random collection of alienated and distrustful individuals. If we work on this, we will not need to tackle each symptom separately since they will disappear without the cause that generates them.

We can do it this year, but we must understand that we have no other choice, and we must support each other in the process. Otherwise, we may not have the necessary determination.
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“A (Very) Short Summary Of 2021” (Medium)

Medium published my new article “A (very) Short Summary of 2021

As we approach the end of 2021, everyone is drawing conclusions about the past year and guessing what 2022 will bring. From my perspective, 2021 has been a good year, a year of learning, and learning is definitely good. It may not have been pleasant, but that does not mean I do not appreciate what we, as humanity, have been receiving. The main lesson we learned this year has been that nature is the sovereign, and we are its subjects. This is a priceless lesson because if we remember this, we will avoid future mistakes that could cost us countless lives and horrible disasters.

Another good lesson from 2021 is that the world powers must put their mutual relationships in order if they want to avoid conflicts that can escalate to an all-out war. Clearly, there is a difference between what governments want and what reality dictates, but I think they learned the lesson and it is good to see that even the Russian and Chinese governments have learned.

The collisions between Russia and America, Russia and Europe, and specifically, NATO and Russia, clarify many things. In the end, they will bring them closer to peace, or at least to a truce.

China, too, will understand that it has no chance to continue its development if it sides with Russia. Economically, there is no question that its future depends on the US. If the US would even slightly limit its purchases in China, it would rattle China to the core. They have nowhere to sell but to America.

I don’t mind what people say or what newspapers write; I mind only numbers. Over the past year, and even before, the US has been giving huge sums of money to its people as rescue packages to assist them through Covid. China needs Americans to spend that money on Chinese goods in order to keep its own economy afloat. If Americans stop purchasing from China, the giant from the east will fall.

***

As for Israel, I am sorry to say that I do not think we learned a lot from this year’s experiences. To improve, we will need more lessons, and they will not be easy. We have no idea who are our friends and who are our enemies. Worse yet, we have not learned how to correct ourselves. We have a lot more work ahead of us.

I think that one of the biggest problems of Israel is that there are entities within the country that dream of the abolishment of Israel and work hard to achieve it. We are not as assertive as anyone should be toward one’s enemies, and I think that these issues will hurt us.

While the world is learning to put relationships in order, as I wrote above, Israel is not learning anything. We are creating an internal chaos.

However, it is clear why Israel is not learning while the rest of the world is learning well. Israel needs to develop in its own direction. The rest of the world is learning how to function according to people’s natural egoism.

Israel, on the other hand, should develop in the opposite direction. It should evolve toward connection and care among everyone, and set an example of how people can rise above their egoism and form a united, cohesive society based on solidarity rather than on alienation and competition.

Regrettably, Israelis do not want to hear a word about connection or unity, much less live them out. We will reject connection with fellow Israelis for as long as we can until, perhaps, it is too late to save the country from disintegration. We are already close to the edge.

***

As for the virus, it is here and will stay, as I have been saying from the very beginning. However, it seems as though we are learning how to deal with it, how to live alongside the virus.

Gradually, the virus will teach us what we should and should not do in life. This is why I hope it does not go away, at least not until it teaches us to take only what we need and dedicate our time and efforts to building supportive human relations rather than waste our efforts on destructive consumption.
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“Omicron? The Worst Is Yet to Come” (Medium)

Medium published my new article “Omicron? The Worst Is Yet to Come

It’s been a month since Omicron, the new Covid variant, first appeared. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the strain is spreading “at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant.” WHO also warns that although “Seventy-seven countries have now reported cases of omicron … the reality is that omicron is probably in most countries, even if it hasn’t been detected yet.”

Yet, the Omicron wave does not tell us anything that previous waves did not tell us. The only reason it is here is that we weren’t attentive in the previous waves, so a faster, more unruly form appeared. The more we ignore the message we are getting through the virus, the more damaging the strains will become, and other natural disasters will join them to deliver the message.

We think of creation as consisting of distinct pieces, but in truth, these pieces form a single unit, an organism whose organs operate in inseparable co-dependence. The only part of creation oblivious to this modus operandi is humankind. As a result, we behave contrary to the way all of creation operates, which puts us at odds with all of reality. This is why we feel that nature is hostile and belligerent toward us. If we behaved in sync with the rest of nature, we would feel harmony and peace in everything that happens.

The pandemics and other natural disasters are the consequence of our incongruence with nature. If we dedicate some time and scientific effort building a reciprocal society that is isolated from the rest of society, and whose members strive to build warm relationships, we might see the effects on the health of the members of the group.

Regrettably, I do not see humanity attempting this; we are simply too selfish to be able to do so. In almost every country there are protests and mistrust between citizens and authorities. Even heads of state, who urge people to follow instructions, are caught partying without masks or the required distance.

Nevertheless, the defiant spirit of the people is not necessarily negative, for it indicates profound changes. People today are no longer willing to follow orders of any kind. Drugs that were illicit just a few years ago are now permitted even for “recreational” purposes, and people are generally more pugnacious toward orders from authorities.

For all these reasons, the worst is yet to come. In my opinion, we are approaching a time when such a violent virus emerges that will force us to stay home, seal the window, filter the air we let in, wash the food we eat with soap before we touch it, and (somehow) clean our drinking water.

At the moment, a spiritual connection, where we all feel that we are part of a single mechanism seems far-fetched. However, it is what lies at the basis of nature. Hence, as nature’s blows grow more frequent and intense, it will make us turn to the connection between us as the only recue. At that point, we will agree to learn how to form solidarity and unity, and how to make room for others in our hearts.

At that point, when we have inverted our nature from receiving to giving, we will discover the beauty and joy in giving. In such a state, no pandemic will bully us. Moreover, we will learn to appreciate the ego, which, in its crooked way, has led us to reveal the good and pleasant in creation. It is as our sages said, “As the advantage of the light from within the darkness.”
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Coronavirus Routine

962.4Question: What does it mean to live with the Coronavirus? It seems that our ego knows how to manage with anything.

Answer: No, there is no such thing as managing to live with COVID since it is a biological disease that operates against us. If we connect correctly in this war, it will guide us to the correction of the ego that is in the virus and then we will actually succeed.

It is very interesting to see how the Creator arranges us and affects us with an attack of a biological virus.

Humanity doesn’t understand yet how it should relate to what is happening. We need to explain that everything comes from nature and that the virus is an incredibly sublime factor that symbolizes the lack of the right connection on a biological level, on the levels of still, vegetative, and animate nature. The animate level touches the spiritual level. The spiritual level is called speaking, but we are not making this leap to spirituality yet so the virus pushes us and does its work.

Eventually we will discover that we have no choice and that only through working together, all of us, will we be able to eradicate the Corona pandemic. Moreover, we need to understand that we can cope with the virus only through mutual work; the virus will force us to be connected to each other in a nice, correct manner.
From KabTV’s “Conversation with Journalists” 11/28/21

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“What Really Makes Life Meaningful” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “What Really Makes Life Meaningful

We get up, start the day, prepare the kids for school, or head to work if we are single. The day passes in a flurry. Afterward, we get home exhausted and crash until the next morning so we can start over the next day. Could this be what makes life meaningful? That’s exactly what a recent global study investigated. 39% of respondents said that family was the primary source of meaning in their lives, compared to 2% who found meaning in faith and spirituality.

According to a recent study conducted by Pew Research Center among 19,000 adults in 17 developed countries around the world, the most important factors in a person’s life are their family, career, and financial well-being.

No wonder family is the main source of contentment. Family plays the most important and direct role in a person’s development, as it is the closest and most influential circle. The rest of the circles also influence and fill time with quality, but they are more distant, less stable, and can change from one day to the next. A person can switch jobs, friends, or a place of entertainment, but not their family. In spite of the difficulties sometimes experienced, the person is dependent on and connected to the family. This is why it is so important.

After two years of COVID-19, one might have expected that people would ask more about the meaning of life and, therefore, be more attracted to spirituality. But in the end, humanity is not particularly thoughtful or contemplative about the global epidemic. Rather, people feel oppressed for not being able to travel abroad freely, for having to wear masks and for needing extra shots to prevent the spread of the virus, as well as a number of onerous restrictions.

However, overall we have learned to live with the plague. Soon humanity will also forget about the new variant that invaded our lives. Our human nature is willing to voluntarily receive pleasure and enjoyment for ourselves and only for ourselves. Day by day this egotistical nature grows, becomes coarse and thick, so sophisticated and cunning that the person does not get impressed anymore about anything. We are constantly bombarded by information about wars, mass famine, and new virus variants, but until we experience such a reality in all our senses, we do not believe it is happening and do not take action towards change.

Nevertheless, I cannot say that the coronavirus has not had an impact on us. It revealed to us how much we depend on each other since we are a small global village. But in the network of communication between us, in our inner feelings, we remain indifferent and detached from each other. So, what will naturally happen is that the egoism will get stronger; more global blows will appear until we realize that only when we feel like one family, in mutual guarantee, will we be able to thrive.

We will perceive our lives as purposeful solely through our close human connection. If we were to shape the face of society with the pattern of an ideal family, we would have made our lives better, creating a good, warm, and friendly atmosphere for ourselves. We would have built a good environment that embraces us like a loving mother. The more we connect emotionally to each other, the more we will feel the power of connection, the supreme force of nature, an attribute of giving and loving, a good and benevolent force. If we just cling to nature’s qualities and intentions, we will discover the meaning of life, both in corporeality and spirituality for complete fulfillment.
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“Is This Pandemic Ever Going To End?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: Is this pandemic ever going to end?

We are in a struggle with nature.

We are discordant with the laws of nature, which are fundamentally laws of interconnection and interdependence. At the base of these laws is a single force that develops everyone and everything to increasingly connected states.

We, however, disregard nature’s tendency to connect us.

We currently see no need to unite above our differences. There are absolutely no efforts to come together and build systems that would benefit humanity collectively: systems that would guide us to positively connect upon our divisive drives, and lead us to balance with nature.

Instead, we tear nature and human society apart, living in a constant struggle between different parts of human society and nature. Accordingly, by tearing nature to shreds, we receive negative feedback from it. This negative feedback takes the forms of natural calamities of all kinds, from earthquakes and tsunamis through to pandemics.

Such outbursts are due to our imbalance with nature. Instead of applying ourselves to come together and achieve a higher sense of complementarity and cooperation, we instead become increasingly disparate from one another.

The more we head in an opposite direction to the increasing interconnection and interdependence that nature guides us to, the more we will receive negative feedback from nature. Although it might seem like punishment, it is not punishment at all. Nature’s blows are rather forces that aim to awaken us to correct our inclination: to align ourselves to better connect with each other in order to become balanced with nature, and by doing so, feel ourselves enter a whole new peaceful and harmonious world.

Instead of using these blows effectively, as reminders and impetus to better connect, to become more balanced, and to build a more supportive and encouraging society, we continue our lives in the dark, with no motion to build systems of positive connection above the growing divisive drives. Likewise, we can expect to receive more and more negative feedback from nature until we wake up to the need to correct our flawed modus operandi.

In the past, we also encountered several atrocities, but we were less developed and didn’t feel them as feedback to our actions. However, in our times, we are increasingly receiving terrible blows—on the still, vegetative, animate and human levels—that will lead to a point where they will endanger our very existence on this planet.

I thus stated at the start of the coronavirus pandemic that it would not go away. On the contrary, the pandemic will worsen and possibly evolve into greater crises until we wake up and draw the right conclusions.

Based on “Writers Meeting” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and a team of writers on November 28, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

“Consideration – The Buzzword That Will Mark The Change” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “Consideration – The Buzzword that Will Mark the Change

From east to west, the world is sinking into another wave of the coronavirus. Despite the vaccines and the booster shots, the future of the world seems bleak. Until we learn the lesson that the virus has come to teach us, we will not be rid of it. We have not changed our core values, the ones that inflicted on us the virus to begin with, so there is no reason for it to go away. Only once we change our attitude to every one and every thing around us will we see a relief in the contagion.

Why are prices soaring all of a sudden? There is nothing in it but wicked greed, an intention to make me richer and others poorer.

As for us, why are we so focused on shopping? What is it that we really need? Will another gadget make us happy people? If all it took to make us happy was buying another toy, we wouldn’t see more than 100,000 Americans dying of overdose in a single year, most of whom were young. We wouldn’t see so much violence, so much depression, so much hatred and division.

If we worked on these problems rather than burying our heads in the Amazon.com quicksand, we would feel so much better, and we also wouldn’t suffer from tenacious viruses. Just as the virus has taught us, we are interdependent. You can’t have healthy and content people in one place while people elsewhere feel miserable. Today, unless everyone is well, no one will be well. This is true not only of the virus, but of air, water, wealth, and every other aspect of life.

I measure progress or regression by the changes I see in people. Since I see no changes in them, I cannot say that we have made any progress, so there is no reason for the virus to leave. We are still as abusive toward each other as we were in 2019, and we are just as ruthless toward the environment as then. To paraphrase the words of Albert Einstein, stupidity is to do the same thing over and over again yet expecting different results. We all understand this except when it comes to our own behavior. As a result, millions have died and thousands more are dying each day for no other reason but our carelessness.

The world can provide for everyone abundantly; there is no shortage of anything; there is surplus! So why are people hungry, thirsty, sick, homeless? Why are they not getting decent education and decent health care? It is because we don’t care about each other.

It does not end with the basics in life. Look at the pervasive fundamentalism that has taken over society. We regard those who disagree with us as enemies of the public. When diversity of views becomes a crime, totalitarianism takes over and any means is legal to curb free thought.

We may not see the connection between diversity and mutual consideration and the virus, but the connection exists: It is our selfishness. We exploit everyone—people, animals, and all of nature. We feel that only we matter, and everything else should serve us or become extinct.

When that feeling becomes intense enough in a critical mass of people, it tears apart the system and everything collapses—from human society through the animal kingdom to the ground we stand on. Indeed, try to find one area where there is no crisis and you will fail.

The problem is the common cause—humankind. No highbrow speeches about equity and equality will change the fact that we hate each other. Until we realize that we are different and must nonetheless allow everyone to be who they are, we will not begin to change things for the better.

The buzzword that will mark the beginning of change is consideration. Until we learn to be considerate toward others, the world will not be considerate toward us.
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“Covid – The Career Terminator” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “Covid – the Career Terminator

We are not even two years into Covid, but it is already clear that the virus is revolutionizing civilization. Things we took for granted until recently, such as work, school, and entertainment, have become debatable on many levels. The virus is not only affecting our health and our lives; it is changing how we see ourselves as human beings and as members of society.

Until the virus landed on us, we branded people, in large part, by their careers or jobs, and their lifestyles. Having a career used to be a symbol of success. There was a romantic tone to the word, and images of frequent “work” trips, company credit cards, an apartment in a high-rise with a guard in the lobby, and a social status for others to envy.

Somehow, Covid dimmed the glamour. It is not that people utterly reject the idea of a career, but it is not as enviable as it was two years ago, and its appeal is only waning.

We still want money, and we always will, but we are willing to pay much less for making lots of it. We are not willing to sacrifice so much of our social lives, our other interests, our peace of mind, and our family time for a social status. In part, it is because we no longer find it so enticing, and in part, it is because others no longer find our career “titles” enviable. They see our long hours at the office, our frequent flights, and they pity us for having to work so hard instead of enjoying life.

But the pandemic has gone deeper than changing our perception of work. Bit by bit, it has reawakened in us the “big” questions, those we have suppressed for years under the pressure of survival in a hyper capitalistic world: the questions about the meaning of life.

Just as the warming climate melts the permafrost and lets out gases that change the composition of our atmosphere, the virus is dissolving the ice in our hearts and opens them to long-frozen feelings that change the atmosphere in our society. We are learning to think more socially and less individually.

The fear of infection has made us acknowledge that we are dependent on others for our health. Now, with the crisis in supply chains due to the coronavirus, it makes us realize we are dependent on each other for our food, for the price we pay for things, for our ability to buy holiday gifts, for our entertainment, our social lives, and for our schools and education.

We may not realize it but the virus teaches us to reassess our values: who we consider great and admirable, and who we despise. It teaches us to judge people not by how much they make, but by how much they contribute to society. We started by applauding health and medical workers, then moved on to acknowledging that supermarket workers are indispensable, and now we realize that these invisible people are the ones who enable us to live and worry about ourselves.

Thanks to the virus, we are finally learning that each person is unique because each person can make a special contribution to society that no one else can. In our uniqueness, we are all equal.

When the process of welcoming each person’s uniqueness is complete, we will find that the hatred in our hearts is gone. We will realize how precious each of us is, and we will be grateful for the existence of every human being on this planet. When this happens, we will be thankful to Covid – the career terminator and generator of unity and peace.