Nothing has changed, but everything has changed. I feel like this statement can be applied to the whole planet now, instead of just me. When I found out that I am the autistic, child-rape surviving , superstar that I am it was a huge shock. I felt like, and feel like, nothing in my world changed one bit, however my new perspective has changed absolutely everything. As our species comes to grips with our collective mortality I feel like the same is true, nothing has changed but everything is different.

Suddenly life seems a tad more precious and significantly less predictable. No one can pretend things are fine. No one can escape the new realities of our world. The flu can kill you, that was true a month ago. Now the flu can really kill you though. Living kills you. Nothing has changed. Washing your hands and covering your cough were always important. Now they are essential habits. Our grandparents were asked to answer the call of duty by lining up to die overseas. We are being asked to answer the call of duty by literally staying home and playing ‘Call of Duty.” Seems a little less dramatic in my opinion.

What does this mean for our daily lives? Certainly less certainty, but what else? We don’t know, we can’t know, but we can guess. We can study history to see if there are any stories of what happens to humanity when things get scary. I don’t recommend that, if you get worried easily. We don’t historically cope well with existential crisis, as a species… generally speaking. That said, there is a real chance here to enact some growth. Anyone who has experienced personal trauma can tell you that growth is hard, usually hurts, and is absolutely better than the alternative.

What is the alternative to growth? It’s worth examining, in my opinion. I would say the alternative to growth is stagnation. Stagnation inevitably leads to decay. I feel like this lesson is observable in the natural world. Now ask yourself: would you say our society values growth or stagnation? How about if we re-frame the question, instead of stagnation lets call it ‘status quo’. I would suggest that collectively we are a species that values keeping things the way they were. Except that nothing can ever be kept the way it was, not if it is part of the dynamic, living, universe. Only dead things never change, because they can’t.

So here’s where I find this whole impending collapse of civilization as a good thing. We are a civilization that prizes greed and distraction and I say it’s past time for that to end. The end of the world as we know it happens every time we learn something new. We are all going to learn a lot about being human. What’s the lesson you plan on teaching?