One cannot be quarantined when he’s already quarantined.
One cannot be quarantined when he’s already quarantined.
One cannot he be cut short of his communication when he’s already in exile.
One cannot be ousted from society when he already lost his life at home.
One cannot be imprisoned when he’s already in a prison cell. And one needs no martial law, when he’s already at war.
And one more thing: there is no word like “safety” in the outer space…
We, who walked the plank into the open sea, are we afraid of quarantine on the lonely island or it’s the storm, that makes us feel uneasy?
As the Ocean has just spitted you out, safely landing you on shore do you really care whether the island is plagued unless the local people are friendly?
As a kid I read a lot of Jack London and particularly remember his piece on Molokai, — the colony of leprosy Hawaiians and some foreigners, trapped in the Pacific.
Jack wrote a great piece on that: “the Lepers of Molokai.”
No one knew how to treat them at the time, the issue was to contain them in a secure place.
Someone said it’s a will of god, someone claimed it’s the fish diet that made them sick.
The parasite that caused leprosy was still unknown then and the treatment was obscure.
The thing the lepers of Molokai can teach us, the dwellers of the modern towns: no one ever knows when it comes after you.
And the second thing: the leper in the community is safer then the one, who lives in hiding.
And the community should know where he is. As knowing and recognizing is half of the solution…
There is one more thing that story could teach us:
fear is such a relative thing…
When I was little I often though what would become of me if I was one of the Molokai?
The mere thought filled me with dread.
Well, now I have the answer.
I became one.
We, the exiled, the toxic, the hated back home for being different, for being too demanding, for seeking the change, are we ready for a new pandemic?
Yes, we are.
We are more then ready for it, we are immune to any sort of quarantine, the seclusion of a prison cell, the loneliness of an astronaut, the fear of the leper of Molokai.
But is the society ready?
We will help you, our dearest friends who never experienced loneliness, to overcome the fear.
It is easy, this meditation just takes a few minutes, maybe less then one.
Just take a deep breath and think whom would you not fear to feel behind your back in the dark wood, on the frontier trail, in the wild and desolate place?
Not whom you love, or think you love, not whom you would want to text right now or grab him or her by the hand.
Let’s make it clear: the idea is to think of someone whom you would not fear to sense behind your back when you walk through that place of fear?
Meditate on this, imagine this, make this picture real for a moment…
Whom you’d be really willing to sense behind your back when there is darkness behind and danger hunts you and the only weapon is your sweaty palm, grabbing the roots on the grass helping you to climb in the dark.
No time for dreams, for doubts, for questions.
No time for arguments.
Whom would you fully trust?
The result of this meditation would surprise you as the list of people would be quite different from that in your contact list or in your calendar for meeting “friends with benefits” or the portrait gallery of the pals at the counter of your favorite gin mill.
Yet, these people are there, there is hope and trust in the air of your lonely room, you are not leprosic (at least not tested positive yet) and the day is long.
There is no place to be exiled when you already are.
There is no prison-cell within the prison-cell and there is no word like “dread” in the midst of a battle.
But there is something we all can learn from any virus or any crisis ahead of us.
Inside the eye of a perfect storm: protect those whom you trust most.
They will be there for you, do not neglect your only real duty: be responsible for those, who took this risky path to walk with you.
As there is no word like “fear” on this road when fear is all around, there is still a real need for us to be careful.
As the only real fear on this path has a name.
It’s called “mistrust”.
