Are you a Warrior or a Worrier?
Obviously we are all a bit of both right now but when the sh..t hits the proverbial fan which I think it just did — then when you’re done screaming with rage and frustration at how useless all of the leaders of our time have been at handling this nightmare situation- it’s probably best to scrabble about in your soul and find that warrior spirit — or failing that look for the people who have found it ( a little tip … they don’t usually work in politics) and hang on to them for dear life.
Because let’s be honest here — in recent times — haven’t we all been the person that thinks — OMG what am I going to DO? — how am I going to manage? Shall I just cover my eyes and hope the whole thing goes away?
or even somebody that tries to convince themselves that whatever this is ( in this case — a global pandemic ) it isn’t actually happening….
and maybe who even believes that the hospital workers who tell us its like living in hell are just actors — albeit very good ones — and that the poor patients who keep inconveniently dying would have died anyway … like my friend’s mother who was 76 in perfect health or my 51 year old friend who was a nurse or the teacher who came out from behind her screen to help out a child who couldn’t grasp a particular maths problem — are just normal life and death statistics….Or that the thousands of people who have lost their jobs with no prospect of getting another are just another global statistic.
Or that the heartbroken leisure and catering businesses who might never recover from this — just don’t actually exist!!
Or maybe you’re just British and you think that British people don’t follow rules — they just carry on — stiff upper lip and all that — and they leave all that emotional stuff to the Mediterraneans!! Forza Brexit! ( my god that particular one just makes me want to throw up right here and now!!
Or perhaps you just blame the Chinese for starting it and the Italians for spreading it through all that kissing and living with extended families.
Or maybe you genuinely believe it is in fact a kind of political hoax put about by the Illuminati and Bill Gates and spread around through 5G.
Or could it be that you’re actually a genuine warrior who knows absolutely what this is and that it ain’t going anywhere anytime soon -and that whatever happens there’s going to be heartache and misery for some time to come? And even more importantly someone who knows that there is simply no point in waiting for things to change or for “ the war to be over” because there are things that can be done right now . And you are going to be one of the people who is actually going to try to do them?
Obviously we can’t all be doctors, nurses or teachers ( who in my humble opinion are all up there with the angels right now-) but we can do things that remind people that there is a future and that there is hope in so many ways.
Somebody once said (and I wish it were me!) that:
“a sick soul causes more death than a germ?”
And whoever it was I passionately believe they were right. History definitely has its eyes on us right now as it does on all global nightmares, crises, points of change.
And if we want to get through it however painful it feels we simply must start seeing some of these things ( not all I grant you but some) as an opportunity to change things — to make them better.
In early January 2020 I was hospitalised with my second bout of pneumonia in a month from which I couldn’t seem to recover. No one mentioned Covid- and because I kept being sick I think everyone thought I had some form of rare cancer.
I remember coming out of a full body MRI scan which was so cold I thought they were taking me to the Morgue.
( which as it happens was next door to the scanning room ) — and when they finally pulled me out of the “drawer” ie the MRI scanning tube – after 55 mins of what felt like sub zero temperatures (bearing in mind my body temperature had been 39.8C when I went in ) — my lips were so blue my friend thought I was dead — so she rushed me upstairs and they gave me 17 hot blankets and gradually I returned to life.
But a few minutes later and rather unexpectedly- she (my friend) came rushing back in again with a clip she’d found from a magnificent black comedy we’d watched together years ago called “Death Becomes Her” with Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn where Meryl (god love her) is mistakenly put in a drawer of a morgue while she is still alive — but fortunately gets pulled out just in time with blue lips and frost in her hair!
Anyway my friend had decided it had reminded her of what I had just been through — and although I didn’t look quite as good as Meryl obviously) when we watched the clip again — we really did laugh and laugh and laugh. And God it did us SO much good!
And you know — despite the horrors that followed -( I didn’t have cancer by the way but I did have Covid — although only diagnosed 2 months later with an antibodies test) — that laughter still keeps me going now …
So the moral of this particular tale is that this wretched virus is probably set to stay a whole while longer than we are led to believe — and we simply have to keep smiling because in the end when it’s finally under control (probably never quite gone) there will be a whole load of good stuff that will come out of it too.
It’s entirely possible that western education will finally come out of the Victorian age, ethnic diversity in business might actually start to happen, better structures for working mothers might start really operating effectively for both sides in the work place — which will also become more flexible (9 to 5 should have disappeared decades ago!) — and you never know in some parts of the world men might genuinely begin to feel ok about being «stay at home» fathers. (or maybe I am still living in La La Land on that last point — especially since I still choose to live here in Italy!)
Either way what will definitely happen will be that businesses -ones that I will refrain from mentioning for the moment — that should have disappeared years ago, but are being held back by white middle aged guys who can’t bear the thought of changing anything when they are looking down the lens of glorious retirement spent in golf clubs and at global sporting events — will now be taken over by future thinkers who use the current technology as it should be used — (ie as though the old technology never existed) — and things will get done in a way that 30, 20 or even 10 years ago we would never even have dreamed of!
It’s exciting, fascinating and energising and if you look back over thousands of years of civilisation- positive change almost always comes after a period of darkness and strife — almost as though it’s the darkness that makes us open our eyes again -( oh the irony! And don’t you dare look sceptical because it is absurdly and absolutely true!)
But in the meantime -and before I get carried away by my own enthusiasm I should take a brutal reality check and remind myself that I have cried more in the last year than ever before ( which is saying a lot — because those who know me well would say I cry at least once a day — and those who know me even better would say I barely stop!) — but the “ spinta” boost — I have found in discovering ( or being forced actually ) how to do things differently and more importantly how to think differently — has made me change more than I have ever done in any one year of my life to date.
They say you are never too old to become what you might have been — and actually I never believed that- but at 57 — I really can see that it’s true.
In a little over 18 months alongside my gorgeous business partners — we have created 2 italian social media platforms, 1 global social media agency, met 100s of fabulously talented young people who are not going to change the world- they are already doing it….and most importantly of all have given us all something to smile about every single dark and hideous day.
Of course I still worry a lot ( I have 3 teenagers- for gods sakes!!) 2 doing GCSE’s and one a first year medical student — and do not get me started on the scandal of first year university students’ pastoral care or complete lack of it!!) 2 stepchildren and 3 step grandchildren — one of whom was only born 4 weeks ago into the middle of a lockdown- and finally …. lest we forget … a new business that is still eating money — but when it all overwhelms me I remember that even though I so often have days of tears, despair and worry- I am also a warrior who is NOT going to listen to any more politicians whose decisions last about as long as a melting magnum — neither am I just going to keep my head down and hope that things will go away — instead I am going to have a crack at trying to make them go away and use this time to do something that actually might help make a small change to this fascinating and crazy world in which we will surely die but in which we could really choose to truly live.( like warriors!!)
