- People often deny there is a problem
- It’s often worse than you thought
- Many people will panic
- Some people will jeopardize others with their negligence
- People are often more afraid of dying than they knew
- Self-preservation leads some people to hoarding
- Many become self-sacrificial in ways that defy the survival instinct
- There will always be people who exploit suffering to their own benefit
- Disaster can pull people apart
- Disaster can pull people together
- Some adopt as their operational motto “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die”
- Some people discover their own deepest spirituality
- Boredom can lead to experimentation and novelty
- Feeling helpless often leads to depression
- People can obsess over statistics like death rates
- The poor always suffer the most
- Emotions are contagious
- When great interruptions arise new models are often created
- Confining people can lead to growing closeness
- Confining people in dysfunction often leads to abuse
- Isolation is not the same as solitude
- People become aware of what they take for granted
- Shortages often bring about sharing and thriftiness
- The world is surprisingly interconnected
- Viruses seem to have a life of their own
- Interrupting the mad rush to acquire and own can be redemptive
- Sharing communal meals are important
- Some people have no social network
- Pandemics represent a margin out of which change takes place
- People never know what they can do until they have to
- Great threats cause the tribe to temporarily table secondary conflicts
- Leadership is always tested to the max
- New leaders often arise in times of crisis
- Disasters often destabilize regimes that are faltering
- Charlatans, soothsayers, and end-times prognosticators abound in dire times
- Fear is the emotion that creates most of the other negative emotions
- Our elders who have previously lived through hard times often give the best council
- Rigid social roles often become more fluid
- Resilient people find ways to grow, change, and help others
- Spirituality is a real and sustaining force
- People redefine their relationship to the larger natural world
- Illusions of permanence and security are often shattered
- Sex and prayer often increase
- Children are most traumatized by the terror of their parents
- We are not in control
- Now can be terrible, but now is not forever
- People who thrive are centered, trusting and hopeful before the crisis hits
- When people share urgent circumstances they form a special bond
- Virus and bacteria life forms have always inhabited our planet
- Hard choices have to be made that are often not comfortable
- People of the future will remember this time by the way we live it
- Faith, hope, and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love.
vitalwholeness 