Josh Allred's Blog

In the Time of Pandemic

And the people stayed home. And they read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And they listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.

And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live, and they healed the earth fully, as they had been healed.

A great poem to match the feeling of the moment. The only problem is that many people are mistaking the author with deceased Irish Author, Kathleen O’Mara with the real author, Catherine O’Meara, who wrote this piece just this past week.

As you can see, that hasn’t stopped the poem from spreading even if the author is wrongly cited. (Note the picture that is supposedly from the Spanish Flu era.)

It’s worth pointing out here: Memes are sticky. They stick so well because they are short, digestible and there are so many, all it takes is for one to strike a chord.

In the age of streaming endless information, it’s even more important to stop and ask, “Where did this source come from?”

Playing Telephone in elementary school was already difficult enough. Now try playing it with the world.

All humans seek now more than ever is clarity. While we can’t predict what happens next, we can accurately report what is happening now.

As the Covid-19 narrative continues to dominate the conversation, it’s worth reminding everyone that it’s okay to talk about something else.

It’s important to not let our fears, anxiety and doubts take the driver’s seat. If we don’t talk about the other stuff (the more important stuff actually), we are blowing an amazing opportunity here to reconnect. To recognize what is most important.

There are things that are out of our control. Talking about them, obsessing about them, won’t change that.

Bob Dylan’s first album wasn’t a greatest hits record.

And neither were the Stones.

Nor Zepplin.

All of the greatest hits came after a large body of work was produced.

This means, your best art is still waiting to be made.

Even in social distancing, keep making a ruckus.

It is always much worse to stand on the edge of something.

The trick then is to decide before you look down what you are going to do. Because deciding afterward is much more difficult to do.

It’s easy to mistake doubt as apprehension.

Apprehension is normal. It’s okay to assume that this next step might be scary to take.

Doubt your fears before your faith.

In 1993, IBM laid off 60,000 employees.

In 2008, Citigroup cut 50,000 jobs.

The critics and the lizard brain (and maybe common sense) will tell you to find stable work. One where you can good enough and blend in.

But wouldn’t it be safer to be actively creating ways to make a living on your own without an employer?

There is no such thing as a safe and stable job anymore. The question is do you work per hour or do you get paid when the job is done?

Bertha Benz didn’t have permission to take the Motorwagon on the first long-distance road trip in history.

(Plus, it was illegal to drive in Germany back in 1888.)

There were no gas stations, she had to stop at local Pharmacies to get the petroleum products needed.

Her vehicle fell apart often and had to find ways to get it repaired. Again, there were no repair shops back then.

She didn’t have authority, but she went ahead and did it anyway.

That kind of bravery is what artists do. They know what they are about to do might not work but they step into the unknown anyway.

Look, chances are you know what you need to do next but it scares the hell out of you. The challenge isn’t going to be completely mapped for you. Ever.

May I suggest then, have enough to start and then see what happens.

There are sure to be hazards on our journey. It wouldn’t a hero’s journey without them. (Note: Luke Skywalker needed the Darth Vader and the Death Star to become Luke Skywalker.)

When people first came out, it felt like a moment.

Defenders of the status quo will have you believe that change is all but a small moment. It will pass and things return back to normal. Business as usual.

It’s difficult to see when we are in the middle of a revolution.

The question to ask ourselves is this just a moment or the start of something bigger?

The shortest path to becoming a doctor is to go through med school. And if you want to become a marine, you have to go through basic training.

No other way around it. It’s what separates insiders and outsiders.

Everyone is already on the shortest path. There are people out there that will try to sell us on the even shorter one. But they don’t exist.

People like us do stuff like this.

We don’t think of the internet as this place to gain reassurance. But that’s what it turns into.

Often, we treat it as a place to amplify the voice in our head.

Yet, we don’t have to. It can also be a space to contribute, to organize, to share your work.

If you are incessantly checking your feed it’s worth asking:

Am I coming here to amplify my fears or to dance with them?

If you could see a car accident before it happened, that would be really cool. It would change the decision you made getting in your car today. But alas, it doesn’t happen that way.

Most emergencies happen in a hurry.

COVID-19 is happening in a hurry. That’s what happens when we have airplanes traveling between countries every day.

The faster we choose to go, the more likely we are to hit an emergency.

In contrast, the slower we go the more likely we can see what is coming around the corner.

Perhaps then we should ask, “Is this an appropriate time for a sprint?” Or maybe we should be thinking further ahead.

[Worth asking: Do people perceive a sprint as panic?]