Greetings Dear Reader,

Yesterday’s blog was about listening to COVID-19, for no other reason that it’s talking to us. Provided of course we aren’t taking ourselves too seriously to dismiss COVID-19 talking to us as imbecile and absurd.

You can read it here, in case you missed it.

If we are listening, the logical question that follows is, “What is COVID-19 saying to us?”

I can’t say what COVID-19 is saying to US, YOU AND EVERYBODY ELSE. I can only speak for myself and share what it is saying to me.

Let me unpack the answer with a little help from Søren Aabye Kierkegaard, the highly regarded and respected Danish existential philosopher, who informed us that:

Human beings can only attain their desires by passing through its opposite.

COVID-19 is most certainly the opposite of many of the desires I have. But among all, one stands out – FREEDOM. COVID-19 has imprisoned our (my and millions more) FREEDOMS.

Since I’m passing through the opposite of FREEDOM, this is what I hear COVID-19 saying to me:

Hello Gaurav, do you value your freedom? If yes, then give thanks and respect it. Don’t take it for granted. Nurture it, don’t abuse it. Employ it wisely – for increasing the wellbeing and prosperity of as many people as you can touch – yourself and others. Insist that others respect your FREEDOM. And assure them in turn that you will respect their freedoms, even if you don’t or can’t see eye-to-eye with them.

That’s the gist of what I hear COVID-19 saying to me. What do you hear?

P.S. Thanks Søren Aabye Kierkegaard, for giving me the ears to hear.