Everyone has an excuse for breaking the rules. The refrain goes something like this – “We are doing it because they are doing it, and somebody else started it.”

This kind of talk will bubble up more and more as people chafe under pandemic lockdown restrictions and lose their livelihoods. It’ll be hard to open up the economy and then close it again if there’s a second surge infection. Prolonged lockdown periods will see the rebirth of prohibition speakeasy gatherings, secret meetups, and civil disobedience as people seek to trade, barter, and make a living.

Before we have a vaccine, the informal economy will be the underground economy, powered the young and immune.

Photo by David Straight on Unsplash

It is not down on any map; true places never are. – Moby Dick

Today is ANZAC day in Australia, which marks the anniversary of the first campaign that led to significant casualties for Australian and New Zealand forces during WWI and commemorates all the wars that followed.

I was out with my son this morning before the town had woken up. The fountains were off, the escalators were quiet, and a couple of surfers were out on a dawn patrol. Early mornings are the best times with young kids because there is space to play on the benches, little walls, and small grassy knolls. The parks are all closed because of the lockdowns, so we make the best of our urban environment.

There is a war memorial near our house, and as I walked past it with my son that morning, I noticed an old man standing alone and facing the monument. He was wearing an ill-fitting suit with more than a few medals on his jacket. He was standing at attention and saluting. After a while, he turned around and marched away. There was no ceremony, no band, no politicians jumping on the bandwagon, none of the “thank you for your service” crowd in their gas-guzzling SUVs. There was just an old military man paying his respects to the fallen. He was doing it for himself and for the ones who never came home.

It was a reminder to me that we humans are enigmas. Capable of so much cruelty and evil, but also so full of love and goodness. Maybe the next wars aren’t between humans anymore, perhaps it’s between us and this virus, and the next one after this one.

Photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash

We all know people who always just talk about themselves. The whole conversation and relationship is a one-way street. You know all about their career, their kids, their health status, their wants, and dreams. But they know next to nothing about you, because they don’t ask questions, and don’t remember the answer when they do. It’s not because they are busy, it’s because they don’t value you.

Stop hanging out with these people. They are takers. They aren’t interested in reciprocation. Unless it benefits them, you won’t hear from them again.

Photo by Mihai Surdu on Unsplash

A lot of people are realizing for the first time in their lives that they have no control over their lives. They are addicted to the illusion of certainty and the belief that they are in control. The rapid changes in the world over the last month is like going cold turkey. It’s scary stuff.

It’s taken a global pandemic to wake people up to the reality that everyone is making it up as they go. Politicians, journalists, doctors are all figuring it out on the fly like the rest of us. It’s like aliens just landed on earth, and we were all told to shelter in place while someone like Trump negotiates with the visitors from Mars.

This wake-up call is similar to the shock we get when someone close to us dies unexpectedly, or we get a life-changing medical diagnosis. The fragility of life comes at you fast.

Cold Turkey is hard. People freak out. That’s why we are seeing people protesting around the country and saying that we need to open back up for business. They have posters and signs that read, “I need a haircut,” “Give me back from freedom.” What they really mean is, “Make it go back to normal!”. They won’t surrender to the reality of uncertainty. They want to remain in the illusion of control, so they look for scapegoats and blindly forge ahead.

I hope they wake up and embrace the unknown.

Photo by pawel szvmanski on Unsplash

Nature is quick to take back territory. Leave a garden untended for a while, and the flowers break free, creepers creep, and things overgrow.

Manicured astroturf gardens are sterile. Wild gardens buzz with life.

The Golden Gate Park in San Francisco is wilder than manicured. Some patches have been purposefully left to overgrow and flourish.

The beaches in Northern California have the same untamed nature to them. They change and shape shift daily. A walk down a beach near Tomales Bay or Jenner is like plugging into the source.

Big Sur has the same raw energy.

Seek out these wild places. Don’t try and tame them, but nurture them.

Photo by Rich Hay on Unsplash

If you plan to make any significant changes in your life like starting a company, change careers, moving countries, then you are going to have naysayers and critics.

Sometimes the criticism and skepticism come from a place of love. Family members who are worried you will fail or who think you are taking on too much risk. They love you and want to protect you. Recognize that they care about you and factor their feedback into your decision. No man is an island.

There are also haters and pessimists. They will tell you all the reasons why you will fail and remind you of your past failures or wrong decisions. Haters and pessimists are projecting. They are great at pointing out other people’s shortcomings, but most of the time, they have never made a bold move in their own lives and are bitter. Listen to them, but don’t let them stop you.

Listen to the optimists and your supporters, but also remember that boosters don’t have skin in the game. If you fail, then you will probably fail alone.

If you are lucky, you will have a partner or spouse in your life who believes in you and loves you just the way you are. Listen to this person. They see the best in you and the worst in you. They also have skin in the game. If you succeed, then they succeed; if you fail, then they fail.

Learn to balance feedback and input like a stereo system. Ramp the information from people you trust and soften the armchair critics.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

I remember when a friend of mine bought a first-generation iPhone. It was back in 2007 when all of the worker bees will still using Blackberrys and Palm Pilots. Nobody used their phones to surf the web. Browsing the internet was available on the Blackberry but it was slow and unusable. There were no apps or App Stores and big companies didn’t even allow iPhones to be used for corporate email.

We were so attached to our Blackberrys. People had leather holsters on their belts and would walk around like gunslingers in a Western. We cherished our hard-wired QWERTY keyboards, tap tap tap…that’s how indoctrinated we were to the status quo.

I remember trying the iPhone for the first time. It was like playing with something from another planet. I bought one as soon as I could and had two phones with me until my company supported email on the iPhone and then I ditched the Blackberry forever.

I’ve heard that people who are serious about cars have the same experience with Tesla. There’s no going back.

Video conferencing services like Zoom are like Blackberry 2007. I wonder what the iPhone equivalent of video conferencing will be in 5 years’ time.

So what’s the point of this story? A lot of people accept the status quo like a shitty Blackberry, an unsatisfying job or living arrangement because they don’t know what else is out there. They won’t explore the great unknown because they don’t like how change makes them feel.

Uncertainty and stress is the tax we pay for the change. If you want to experiment with new ways of doing things or change the status quo then get ready to pay the tax. Most of the time it’s worth it!

Photo by Randy Lu on Unsplash

I wonder how all the talk show hosts, pseudo-celebrities and influencers are feeling about their new shelter in place world. Their oxygen supply is turned off. Nobody is watching them anymore.

The lockdowns have leveled the entertainment playing field. Now everyone has access to the same distribution channels. Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and WhatsApp are the platforms that entertain us. I’ve discovered so many smart, funny, crazy and thoughtful previously ‘unknown’ people who have risen to the moment to entertain and inform me.

Pre-COVID the studios had the power of high-quality production, live studio guests, the live studio audience, the field reporters and staff. That’s all changed. Now it’s about raw talent, guerrilla marketing, and community. The studios can’t give their contrived stars air cover through shock and awe promotions and prime time TV slots during the lockdown. There will be some that survive because they have raw talent like Ellen, Trevor Noah, Jimmy Kimmel, but for a lot of them it’s a bit like everyone can see that the emperor has no clothes.

We also saw some true colors of ‘TV doctors’ come out because don’t have their minders around for damage control. Foot in the mouth seems to be a common side effect of COVID. At least all of us now know that TV Doctors aren’t real doctors

Poems and art strike a different chord and are lighthouses during times of crises, change, and struggle.

IF – by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Photo by Peter Mode on Unsplash