As the COVID-19 pandemic spread the globe, the world came together to put everything on hold for a few weeks, months, or years. The future was unknown. The one thing we did know at the time, was it’ll get much worse before it gets better. It did, and it is still coming in waves. But anxiety, fear, and suffering are not the only things here with us now.

”Let everything happen to you
Beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final.”

–Rainer Maria Rilke

As the US started the first lockdowns in March of 2020, something miraculous happened for the first time ever in the modern world…

We all agreed to hit the pause button.

Everything stopped as we recognized life is bigger than the system we’ve built. We did what was everyone said could never be done— we shut down the entire economic system for awhile.

This pause exposed all the sacrifices we’ve made, generation after generation, from increasingly competitive business practices in order to minimize costs and maximize profits— we’ve sacrificed too much life for work. When one company tried to get an edge by working on Sunday, not long after, everybody else was now working on Sunday too. Nobody wanted to be left behind and so we all did what we had to stay competitive. We’ve justified our continued exploitation of everyone willing to take less and less just so they’ll have enough to put something on their dinner table.

We’ve known for decades this pace is unsustainable. But now we know by the teacher of brutal experience. The pandemic gave us an opportunity to rearrange the structural foundations of our society. The question is will we remember what 2020 cost us, and continue to make tough but life-saving changes.

We stopped pretending profiting off of the backs of one another is what makes the world go around.

Now we know it’s possible for the entire world to come together, there’s reasons for hoping we can collectively collaborate on solving much bigger and more significant problems threatening our health and existence. Our hive switch can be activated globally help humanity thrive.