COVID-19 emergency: an opportunity

In various parts of the world, sporting events and concerts are postponed and some churches, having closed their doors, are offering people services via the internet. All of this is sensible.

So, what are we as individuals and families to make of the situation going forward?

It has been said that hope is not a strategy when we face a problem. That's true, but hope at least puts us in the frame of mind to develop a strategy.

If fear is our default collective emotional response to a threat like COVID-19, paralysis sets in. We rob ourselves of the energy and determination needed for innovation and solution-finding.

This is true not only for people who work in laboratories, pursuing a cure; it is true for the rest of us, as we make choices for our families and our work.

Instead of merely retreating into fatalism, this is an opportunity to redeem our time.

This disease is no blessing - far from it - and we must be vigilant and show compassion to those who are directly affected by it. That said, the current emergency might afford us the chance to re-evaluate some things.

Modern life being what it is, we have precious few opportunities for reflection.

For those of us who have chosen, or been instructed, to work from home, digital technology has much to offer in terms of virtual conferencing and the like.

Businesses and other organisations will suffer much less disruption than they would have done two decades ago, thanks to digitisation. And many workers will experience much less by way of wage losses, because they can essentially work anywhere, at least for a time.

That said, unless we discipline it well, our engagement with digital gadgets also helps to reduce our mental downtime. The brain needs time to reflect on what we experience and discover. Without this downtime, the brain cannot build new information into long-term memory.

In normal life, the internet, for all its many advantages, is also an ecosystem for distraction.