What Did You Do During the Coronavirus Pandemic?

First published on March 25, 2020

Researchers have a name for times when, if you ask people, they will know where they were: flashpoint events. When Princess Diana died was a flashpoint event. September 11th was a flashpoint event. For the British, Super Saturday in the 2012 Olympics was a flashpoint event. For people of a certain persuasion, Jonny Wilkinson's 2003 World Cup Final drop goal was a definitely a flashpoint event.

We are, quite possibly, currently living through the longest flashpoint event of the modern era, which leads us to a question shared with me by my friend Mike last week: How do you want to remember what you did with this time?

Or, to put it another way: it's quite possible that for the rest of our lives, people will say, 'Remember COVID-19?' And you will remember it.

Some of what you remember you will look back on with disbelief: do you remember how it was impossible to buy toilet paper for two weeks?

Some of what you remember will be deeply sad: 'Yes, that's when my aunt died.' 'That's when we lost that lovely old man who used to walk his dog past our house at 11:20am every day.'

And sometimes, you might think - or someone might ask - what did you do during that time?

Now, or sometime soon, right in the middle of it, is the time to think about that. In four years, when someone asks you, it will be too late.

How do you want to remember this time in your life, this time in history?

For some of us, a heroic answer may be: I held it together. Whether 'it' is your family, or a business or charity on which people rely, or a nation's health system, or simply your own emotional or mental wellbeing. For all of us, that would be, at least in part, a good answer. A starting point. So start to ask yourself, now: am I holding it together? If not, what's the one thing I can do, such that by doing it, that will make holding it together easier?

But what if more is possible? What if there is an opportunity amidst this time of unprecendented change, of shifting sands, of systems breaking, of lines being redrawn?

What if there is an opportunity for you - during this time - to step up? To express the higher, nobler, more skilful parts of yourself?

That, too, will look different for everyone.

Perhaps it is a chance to live your life as the parent you always hoped to be, or the husband, wife, boyfriend or girlfriend, you always hoped to be. To write new rules and create new habits in your relationships with those you love.

Perhaps it is a chance to start a business or write a book. You don't need much time to do something like that, and many of us now have more control over our time than ever before and fewer things we can do. This article was written in 12 minutes. If you spend 12 minutes on something every week for 12 weeks, you are different by the end of it.

Perhaps it is to change what you spend your life doing. Perhaps, out of the utter shitness of your industry disitengrating before your eyes, you can find the space to start something. Perhaps, when you are asked that question in four years' time, the something you start now will be a part of your life you are proud of.

At the very least, it seems worth asking the question: How do you want to remember what you did during the coronavirus pandemic?