How to Mind the Gap in a Pandemic

We’re into our first week of Level Four lock down in Aotearoa and I am a long way from home but very comfortable. I write this looking out on the inspiring Waitakere Forest west of Auckland. Inspiring because, to my untrained, newcomer’s eye, this magnificent forest, with its dense undergrowth and rich birdlife, felt so ancient even though it is, in fact, a perfect example of nature’s recent, regenerative powers. By the 1940’s all but 2% of what was the original, first growth forest, had been stripped by colonists for its timber and agricultural potential. But nature wasn’t having any – the bare soil proved barren for farming so the trees and “the bush” returned. Even though the 80 year-old forest is nowhere near as majestic as its predecessor (yet), it’s impressive nevertheless. 

But now the majestic Kauri (New Zealand’s largest tree), is suffering dieback from an exotic and microscopic pathogen known as Phytophthora taxon Agathis or PTA for short. In other words, the proud and tall Kauri is dealing with its own version of Covid-19 such that the local iwi,  Te Kawerau ā Maki,  its guardians and protectors, had to place a Rāhui ( a form of physical distancing applied to humans) over the entire Waitākere Forest (Te Wao Nui o Tiriwa). 

Surely then this is the perfect setting in which to contemplate the challenge which humanity and the mighty Kauri share and, no pun intended, to get to its root cause! It can come as no surprise that Covoid-19 and PTA have one unfortunate contributor in common – human interference enabled by our numbers and global mobility.

Nobody can say with any certainty how the first pandemic of the 21st Century will pan out. Hopefully, the death toll won’t be anywhere near as large as that recorded for the European Flu Epidemic in 1918-1920, when anywhere from 17-50 million died, but the economic fallout could be far worse and who knows what a global Depression might lead to? 

On Minding the Gap 

Having frequented the London Underground as a resident of England I am reminded of the phrase “mind the gap” because isn’t that what we’re being asked to do now – to use this huge punctuation in our normal activities to apply some really hard thinking on how best to respond?  The famous Austrian psychologist Viktor Frankl, who survived Auschwitz and authored Man’s Search for Meaning famously wrote about the gap thus: 

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom

and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.”

Viktor Frankl

As the width of the gap between stimulus and response is dependent on our conscious awareness of it, it follows that the wider the gap becomes, the more choice we will have in how we respond, what we do and how we behave. We may all want our isolation to end quickly and for life to get back to normal but that is as undesirable as it is likely.

Furthermore, our responses and plans for the future will depend on how we “see” or frame the gap brought by the coronavirus. I suggest there are at least 3 alternative ways of framing or seeing the pandemic:  

• A.) as an inconvenient, or even, as a welcome pause;
• B.) as an enemy and pathogen; or 
• C.) as a messenger, 

Let me explain with some examples.

Category A. Check out the video, made by Visit Portugal that is circulating the tourism marketing community right now. I applaud its makers – it’s beautifully executed, is on brand (i.e. it fits well with the other videos in their series) and presents a message that few could object to. It combines some uplifting prose with beautiful imagery – who can fault the idea “separated, we are more united than ever.” As it suggests that we must stop, slow down and “make a pause so we can play again,” I am assigning it to category A. Similarly, read this analysis by MMGY full of hope and lots of rational justification for asserting that life can return to normal sooner rather than later. 

Category B). The news and social media are rife with images of war: When French President Emmanuel Macron addressed his nation on 16 March 2020, he used the phrase "Nous sommes en guerre" - translated to "We are at war" - exactly six times. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to "beat the enemy."  The UN Secretary General has argued that "The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war" and proposed a global ceasefire from all hostilities in order that we face a common enemy. As with any war, governments are quick to deploy emergency measures, re-allocate resources, print money, deploy troops, limit human rights, and invest in the technology, ammunition and research necessary to defeat “the enemy.”  The biggest threat and side effect to our long-term health as a society may well be our long-term acceptance of the totalitarian measures necessary to deal with it. 

Category C).  This category is unusual and some might say unprecedented as the corona virus is framed not as an enemy; an “other” to be blamed or fought against but simply as a microbe inhabiting the same living system of which humans are a part that is acting as a messenger, demanding we examine our role in this pandemic and look for its underlying cause . This framing first appeared quietly on the internet as a set of words or prose titled "An Imagined Letter from Covid-19 to Humans" by K. Flyntz. Variations of the text were then incorporated into two videos called Ascolta (Italian)and the other  Listen! (English).

Unless you are running an essential service or caring for the sick, it is likely you have enough time to listen to the second video and observe how you feel.

Please, please just stop, and just listen and reflect. Of the two videos which really moves you (i.e. not as in travel movement but as in affect).

A few facts about viruses

Now this framing of Covid-19 as messenger is not as far-fetched or fanciful as you might think. The UN Environment Chief also sees the environment as a whole playing a messenger role - see here. Viruses are not living things (so maybe the don't have a voice) but they do play a key role in our evolutionary development. Viruses can transfer DNA from organism to organism, sometimes inserting it into the germline (where it becomes heritable). Known as horizontal gene transfer, this is a primary mechanism of evolution, allowing life to evolve together much faster than is possible through random mutation. Scientists have only just started to explore what they term as the human virome -- ecosystems of over 380 trillion viruses that exist in every human body. 

In this context, should we not be looking beyond the evil pathogen and ask, What is the role of viruses in the microbiome? What are the conditions under which harmful viruses proliferate? Better, what are the conditions that encourage beneficial viruses to proliferate? Why do some people have mild symptoms and others severe ones (besides the catch-all non-explanation of “low resistance”)? What positive role might flues, colds, and other non-lethal diseases play in the maintenance of health? Research from Italy where most deaths from Covid 19 have occurred, confirms that less that 1% of the fatalities were free of serious chronic health conditions and half the deceased had three or more serious pathologies. 

I trust that you are beginning to see the importance of framing. Our current industrial-production system is based on a “frame,” a worldview or story that sees earth as an object, separate from us and behaving as a machine that we can control, or as a separate resource that we can exploit. This way of seeing the world divides subject and object and mistakenly assumes that each are separate and one can control the other without any form of feedback loop. That framing is no longer supported by the very science we hold so dear. On the contrary, much of contemporary science now agrees with indigenous and perennial wisdom that has framed earth as a living system, as our mother, and we are her offspring with a unique role to play in her further evolution. 

Our choice of framing brings with it huge consequences:

If we go for the calming sentiments expressed in Category A ,we are deluding ourselves that tourism can and should return to normal one day soon. We are assuming that tourism as a whole will bounce back and the empty squares, plazas, airport lounges, stadia will soon be filled with human chatter and the comforting bleeps of self-service kiosks and human hawkers. If that assumption proves true you can bet the last plane ticket out of a place about to go into lockdown, that similar problems in. terms of scale and scope will repeat themselves.

By framing the Corona Virus as simply the enemy ‘out there” that must be eliminated (i.e, Category B), then we can avoid looking at root causes, pay the price of unintended consequences and make no real progress. Chances are, we may lose many of the liberties that made life worth living pre Corona. 

“War-on-germs thinking brings results akin to those of the War on Terror, War on Crime, War on Weeds, and the endless wars we fight politically and interpersonally. First, it generates endless war; second, it diverts attention from the ground conditions that breed illness, terrorism, crime, weeds, and the rest.” ( )

But if you see Covid-19 as messenger (i.e. as in Category C) then we have to STOP, QUESTION, LISTEN AND LEARN. These four steps are essential pre-requisites of any future recovery program. 

By the time these pages are read, the skies will be eerily empty and most of us will have been confined to the four outer walls of our homes o temporary accommodation. Life as we knew it will have stopped. That takes some getting used to as we contemplate financial ruin, paralysing uncertainty, and separation from or loss of loved ones. It is vital that we do not cave into fear or lethargy. It is vital that we ask for help and learn to listen to what we are being told, and shape our actions accordingly.

Anyone proffering a ten point recovery plan without truly listening at this stage is either delusional, an opportunist or both. We have yet to see who how this drama plays out. But that shouldn't prevent us from using "the gap" to ask probing questions, listen to that still voice within that just might be the voice of the virus, and most of all ask probing questions about what is working and what has become dangerous or redundant before exericising our imagination and allowing bold, more aspirational dreams to emerge.

In the next post, let's explore just what we each might be hearing and compare notes.