In
our day and age ideas can bounce from one brain to the next continent in
seconds due to our loved-hated technology. Let me illustrate, using the six
degree of separation framework, how an idea bounced to me from a previously
unknown person. For this story I need to activate only four out of the six
degrees of separation. In one of my longer than one hour phone talk with a dear
Romanian friend he mentioned how one of his American friends had an insight
upon seeing the world suddenly halt. She just applied David’s Peat creative
suspension idea to the entire world and let the silence do the rest of the
magic. The powerful image suddenly created by my mind while talking to my
friend made me pause to acknowledge its appeal. Then I asked him to ask her for
the copyright. They both said David Peat is actually guilty for launching the
idea, and hypothesized he would have approved my initiative of using it.
Anyhow, during this process I realized that amid the CORONA crisis I am willing
to ride any horse I can get a hold on, as long as it doesn’t throw me off its
back for my insistence of playing around. And now let me show you how I tamed
Peat’s suspension horse and where it leaded me, once it got used with carrying
an additional 80kg burden who took the role of directing his gaze and ride.
What
attracted me to the “suspension” idea was the richness and wealth of meaning
incorporated by this one word, and how many of them are relevant to the world
(in general) and to our CORONA crisis time (in particular). So let’s start
smooth with the first general meaning suspension integrates. Seen from the
far-away space our planet appears to float in space, suspended only by the
invisible gravity the sun exercises to keep it on the orbit. If we click on the
zoom-out button one more time, the Milky Way also appears to be suspended in
space and afloat. And the mega zoom-out third click gets us to see the whole
Universe as suspended in the surrounding infinite space. End of signal
coverage, so we have to stop here. One last comment: I am aware that such a
Galileo-old universal truth was around before any viruses came up with the idea
to freely hitch-hike our planes, trains and cars for their unwelcomed tour
around world. But I took the chance to take you on this journey hoping that such
a visit would be refreshing. Now don’t forget to put on your parachute, we will
be landing back to our CORONA invaded world.
The
second meaning of suspension is related to the tranquility that abruptly
engulfed the loudly noises that use to assault our senses on a daily basis.
CORONA persuaded authorities to suspend all our unessential hectic physical
movements, jumps, crazy social gatherings and face-to-face activities. We
obviously had
different reactions to it, but some (like the American friend of my friend)
could not hide their awe upon seeing that what was previously considered
absolute musts could be out of the picture in a matter of days. And another
equally powerful realization was that, if the situation so requires, we can
actually survive without attending the insane rock concerts, club parties, and
other fun but unnecessary noises we tend to surround ourselves with as a way to
escape the daily demons and dance with the weekend ones. With our physical
movements severely restricted - a long, quiet, unprecedented silence
sovereignly took over and offered us an unsolicited but solid time for
reflections. For art and symphony lovers, those who were blessed with a beyond
average sensibility, the seer silence hit a surprisingly inspiring note from
the opening mute melody. So they kept quiet and listened to this peaceful and
unusual concert of mostly natural notes. Probably such a planetary performance
would have made even John
Cage, who composed his 4’33’’
no sound music piece in 1952, envious for not going bigger.
The
third meaning of suspension is rather telluric and deeply related to the
sanitary, economic, and societal implications of this invasion. Since the world
as we knew it was shuttered, and exists no longer, we long for getting our
stability back. With old assurances vanished, we wait in tension to see how
things will turn over. We have dozens of suspended questions like: “What are
the long term consequences for those who recovered, if any?”; “Would my grandma
survive through?”; “What is the origin of this virus?”; “Will I know that cough
in the near future (for those who didn’t already)?”; “If I’ll get it, how
severe will that be?”; “Will my business be able to recover? If YES, at what
costs? If NO, what shell I do?”; “Should I risk changing my job to take advantage
of the new business opportunities?”; “How big a price-tag governments (and we
all) will finally have to pay for being unprepared to meet this pandemic?”;
“When will we hug our friends, enjoy big weddings, go to the Carnival in
Venice, and attend international conferences again?”; “How will this crisis
affect our country and society as a whole?” Hoping to quiet this suspense we
got addicted to the news, widely exchange messages on social media, desperately
look for what science has to say, and anxiously inspect future economic
prospects that seem worth contemplating. But for the moment almost everyone is
left with one option: to exercise, more or less enthusiastically, the muscles
of frustration tolerance while desperately trying to avoid the total medical and
economic collapse. And we just wish this nightmare suspense will end soon and
somehow happy.
The
forth meaning for suspension is related to the researchers who frantically
investigate the problems using different approaches, hoping to hit a
potentially effective treatment and a scalable vaccine. However, my sense is
that they are currently in the first stage of the creative resolution, where
accumulating detailed knowledge on the problem and trying different strategies
is the main focus. For example treatment efforts strategies tackle the problem
from dissimilar angles trying to: (1) block the receptors CORONA uses to enter
the host cell, or (2) block the machinery of the virus multiplication, or (3)
block the repackaging of the virus once into the cell, or (4) kill/dissolve the
virus itself (see The
science behind CORONA-virus). In terms of vaccines, scientists were able to
come up with 115 candidates, out of which 78 were confirmed as active and 5 are
in an advanced stage of research (according to a recent article from Nature - The
COVID-19 vaccine development landscape; April 8, 2020). However, at
the moment we just don’t know what works medically and also has the scalable
potential to get us out of the houses again. And we might just end up with a
scientist who, after months of relentless Sisyphean efforts, decides to take
the only flight to Malta and simply have a break. And while waiting for the
third canceled flight back, his fresh mind that suspended all activities for a
week, might just have a brilliant idea. Actually the whole planet waits in
suspense for such a creative suspension to happen.
Finally,
the fifth meaning of suspension that I want to leave you with comes from the
old Jewish tradition of Sabbatical time. Jews were instructed, according to the
Torah, not only to keep the seventh day holy, but to offer nature a
regenerative season every sevenths year. Nowadays US universities hijacked this
concept and offered tenured faculty a sabbatical leave for intellectual
regeneration after a seven year chunk of normal teaching. Honestly, I wish all
universities (including mine!) would have incorporated such a refreshing
strategy into their personnel policy. But despite working for a non-sabbatical
leave university; through a combination of luck, courage and perseverance; I
managed to savor the benefits of such a regenerative time during my Fulbright
year at the University of Virginia, US. So I know from experience the
benedictions of having an entire year just to renew your perspectives, to steer
your creativity, and fuel fresh motivation into your tank for trying new
adventures. That now 12 years old sabbatical time remains among the top three
high times of my life.
With
the university leave parenthetical digression aside, we have to admit that
CORONA’s threat convinced entire businesses, and industries, and whole
countries to take a forced sabbatical time. Only under a severe death threat we
bitterly capitulated into giving the planet a break, and reducing air
pollution, and giving spring the right to blossom in a quieter, more serene
space. Holding grudges we retreated in our shelters while cherry trees bloom,
and California grapefruits remain unfamiliar with jet sounds and traffic-jam
after effects. Have it ever occur to you that such a sabbatical time
(ruthlessly stolen from our businesses, I know!) was actually so much cherished
by nature that plants from around the world signed up to express their joy in a
huge universal choir concert? Did you notice that forests unions mobilized
everyone to increase their processing production for CO2 excesses, knowing well
that this generation of sequoia trees may not live long enough to see a similar
opportunity? I bet you didn’t! And if you managed to stay out of reach for the
buzzing environmentalists’ messages, I just want to let you know that their
wildest dreams could not even fancy such a long sabbatical celebration. Their
business as usual was to convince 10% of the drivers to use their bikes for two
days in a row. But the planet’s sabbatical suspension made them experience such
a profound happiness that they just couldn’t stop smiling not only for a day,
but for many weeks at a time. And finally, despite my non affiliation with the
green party, I hope to make that smile contagious and leave you peacefully
admiring the happy, unpolluted magnolia in your garden.
P.S.
I am fully aware that not even savvy psychologists could do anything to escape
the inevitable distortions of overgeneralizations. While for many of us the
world might be in suspension, for first line responders - like the medical and
military personnel, politicians faced to suddenly manage comatose countries,
protective equipment producers, scientist frantically searching for vaccines
and some others – the world seem more like a chaotic nuclear accelerator. Their
minds enjoys the suspension silence only unconsciously during the much needed
sleep recharge time when surprised by the stillness of the normal rush hours.
Disclaimer: I
just hope you will find charming when I spill over the limits of my English as
a second language.
Note: If you
happen to be a journalist and think that every now and then I could contribute
to the success of your publication, be bold and came up with a good offer.
However, bear in mind that I only write about topics I deeply care, so let me
drive the roller-coaster.
Email: Bogdan.Tulbure@e-uvt.ro
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