Two truths, one reality in pandemic reaction

There are two truths. There used to be one.

Two truths. The narrative we tell ourselves, tell one another, to satisfy our worries, our fears, doubts, uncertainties. To conspire for what we desire, what we "need", even, determined through the narrowest of lens, the shortest of plans in sight, foresight.

Certainly in hindsight. And this truth as narrated, this fiction, keeping us from the one truth that is the only truth. The one truth we came here to know:

That whatever the truth, the game, our being as human in this world, this lifetime, we are in this together. And win or lose we do so — as One.

There is a virus among us. A messenger. A teacher. And we so recalcitrant at times the student. So easily distracted from the truth through desires of this world. Power. Privilege. Dominion over another.

The next wave of leader, leading the masses of mankind. But to where exactly? And for what purpose greater than merely the matter of matter? For man is of matter, vibrating as energy, form, for such a brief moment in time.

If there is more beyond this — and most believe it so in one form or another — then by definitions alone, and the limitations thereof, greater purpose than this is at the center of the life experience. A shared experience.

And therein lay the clue.

Since the pandemic emerged, the US has made it a point to drive a false narrative as a stake into the heart of truth. It remains a master in controlling such narrative, spinning the story for political purpose.

Its current leaders find folly in fiction, jumping from plotline to plotline to see what will stick within the minds of the masses, some of whom would rather choose victimhood over a more empowered state of being.

When an event occurs that serves in shaking, awakening humanity through its own feared mortality — an event like COVID-19 — people are easily flocked to the game of blame.

Where conspicuous leaders use fear as flame to shift the consciousness, and with it activity, of its people in service to a cause lesser still than the one at hand that all must face together.

President Woodrow Wilson accomplished this in 1916, manufacturing consent for a war few Americans were keen to join. And with its military activity, a virus spread known only in name as Spanish flu, with its origins much closer to home.

President Donald Trump seeks similar manufacture today, waging war through words, tweets. Words without merit, certainly without valor when courage to speak truth is required. A virus weaponized through words alone, politicized through feigned power, privilege.

For true power resides not with titles but in concert with intelligence greater than the little wills of man. Great masters of past — Confucius, Lao-Tzu, Franklin, Lincoln — knew this. An intelligence that includes everyone, requires all to manifest best. For the only thing holding this together, holding us together, is the shared life experience. And the lessons availed.

The novel coronavirus is just one of many, the latest test to how mankind may choose to live. In fear or in kind.

COVID-19 as with the others will prove more messenger than menace. Here to teach each. About life. For rarely is the issue before us the issue at all. It is in the way we relate to the issues, the challenges we face. This … this is the issue. And opportunity.

We will succeed. We will persevere when it comes to this new virus. Not the first virus. Not the last we will see. We will indeed succeed in forming plans, executing strategies, creating vaccines in concert with antibodies.

We will succeed because this is how the story goes. The story of man on earth. Humankind. A narrative as storied as history may provide. Mankind, faced with challenge. And through the innate need to innovate, the courage to cooperate, we find our way through, beyond the challenge we face.

Virus. Disease. Anything that creates dis-ease within ourselves, our systems. And with one another, our sisters, our brothers, as diverse in look and type, as near identical when viewed genetically .

Succeed? Win as societies, as humanity? This will indeed be. But at what cost? And to what end? What are the lessons to be learned? And how willing the student as precursor to greater ability still? And the responsibility in requisite accompany to ability?

With this life experience, but a shared experience. Not only giving life meaning, but allowing us to move beyond illusion and into greater truth. Our reality as one humanity.

For this planet is to a degree an illusion. With our time on it temporary. Serving as playground to some, classroom for all. Living. Learning. Together. As One.

Until time is no longer.

And we long no more.

The author is the founder and chief executive of UNITE Education and former managing director of The HEAD Foundation.