Towards a new reality

Our reality is shaped by our environment or by our own attitudes and deeds.

Reality as the individual knows it is shaped by self or by the environment.

Take the example of the agency of coronavirus upon the world. I discovered the joys of cutting my own hair, so I save £8 every month at the expense of a hairdresser. A printer friend of mine discovered that their online business boomed, and started to think they will no longer need their city centre shop, which has been closed due to lockdown. Due to stress, I quit as an administrator of a website, but have started thinking about how artificially intelligent entities might do a better job than a human could do to moderate internet sites. These are all small changes due to coronavirus, which when multiplied, brings about a tsunami of change in the world.

There are many who hang on to the previous pre-coronavirus normal, and will fail. Bars are set to reopen in the UK; but they will fail, because people come out to bars for the experience, and the queues, inconvenience, plastic barriers, gloves, masks and social distancing destroys the experience, and they will not return. The coronavirus has fallen away in US states such as New York, but is surging in Florida; the virus is collapsing in the UK, but is rising in India, Mexico and Brazil. Europe is talking about restricting travel from the USA to Europe.

Coronavirus is not the only agent of change in the world. President Trump will increasinly be the source of ripples of discord for all the months running into his November election. China, burnt by coronavirus, is increasingly warlike with Japan, India and Hong Kong. Locusts eat their way through the Middle East and Africa, leaving millions at risk of starvation. And, Siberia, with record temperatures, echo the global drum of significant global change.

But self is also the agent of change in self, and the greater world. I choose to drink more water, and to take up tai chi. I have lost all interest in being entertained by media. Small changes that impact my body, my mind, and then the world through me.

Here are a few final thoughts. Our thoughts, deeds and experiences shape our reality; we are the sum total of all that has gone before us. All change in the world starts with self.