What has the Pandemic Taught me?

What has the pandemic taught me? It has reinforced my deep belief that the human-being is primarily a social-being. That is, what makes us human is our relationships with others. Post-modern philosophy continues to perpetrate the lie that the human being is an individual in out of itself has been debunked. For centuries, mainstream philosophies have shaped our thinking into believing that the self is the cornerstone of reality and existence. From Descartes ‘I think before I am,’ to existentialist philosophers in the twentieth century emphasizing the choice of the individual above else, have been tested and proven insufficient. In a pandemic, when humanity is put on trial, it is not the individual’s mind, not the individual’s choices, not the individual’s self, not the individual’s existence, that manifests what is true and self-evident of the nature of the human-being, but rather the collective spirit of humanity and our relationships with others.

A pandemic has taught me that the idea of individualism is perverted and corrosive.   Particularly in the west, societies have been indoctrinated with the idea that the individual must rise above the community in order to define themselves. How exactly can an individual do so during a pandemic? How can an individual even survive without the collective spirit agreeing to preserve life, guard it and protect it? It is only in the midst of an existential crisis that defies our survival, that we realize that we cannot exist without the other. During a pandemic where my life and yours are simultaneously in danger, is that I realize that I cannot exist without you, and you cannot do so without me. And so, individualism matters little.

But a pandemic also teaches us about the human spirit. Not only does it disseminate the idea of individualism showing it to be an illusion of sorts, it also brings forth the true nature of humanity. A pandemic does not discriminate. It does not separate between races, beliefs, age or political affiliation. All these ideas that we have embraced in order to cling to our individualism disappear when we realize that our existence is in jeopardy. Stripped away from all of these ideas we realize we are composed of the same material as our neighbor and we realize that we are fragile too. What remains at the core of our humanity? Togetherness. A pandemic teaches us to belong not because we must do so to survive, but because that is our nature. We are but of one essence, human. In this we are all together and face the same challenges.

A pandemic fortifies my faith as well. Christianity has volumes to say about community and togetherness. I believe in a God that is three-in-one, a self-giving community of love that pours itself out to creation. Not an individual God. Not a God who stands alone to rule it all. Not a God who commands us to excel in our individual gifts but rather who calls us to render them and put them to service for the better of a community. It is a Christian calling to live in community to resemble the perfect Triune God.

Finally, a pandemic has taught me that in our darkest and final moments, our human message is one of love. When we have a family member ill, or our ill ourselves, the only thing we wished to do is to tell our family members how much we love them. That is all. All across the world, it is the same story. Family members wishing to say their last-goodbyes in a message of love and sick-patients wishing to do the same. We cannot have community unless we have this thing call love. It is what glues us together, what keeps us together, what propels us forward together. it is the thing that dissolves the idea of the individual and opens our eyes to belonging to one another. As the Apostle reminds us, it is love that bear all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, for love never ends.