Danny de Vries, anthropologist of the University of Amsterdam, describes the current corona situation as a predictable surprise. We knew it could or even would come but did not apply the known-possibility to our own lives. The current situation with the virus and its confinement to our homes makes us reflect upon the vulnerability of our body and the structures of our systems around us. Danny uses the metaphor that when when we are sick, we realize how it was to be healthy. Interesting enough we loose that feeling as soon as we are better. We are relieved and move on with our own lives with our old habits and live life as if this sickness was an aberration, nothing to do with us and the daily choices we make. What if the whole society we live in is sick? That changes our collective awareness. We are all part of it. We can’t avoid it. But still we think it does not apply to us and our own individual life until it marches straight into our life like a soldier entering our house it has confiscated. As we are all sitting at home now stripped from all kinds of distractions and comforts and many of our habits and routines are disrupted, it is worth taking a moment of reflection to ask ourselves: what personal predictable surprises am I facing now and have to deal with this physically on the m2, mentally, emotionally? And perhaps even deeper purposefully: how have I been living my life? And what lifestyle choices have led to this? It is worth to reconsider our lives and lifestyle choices now and make different choices today. Yes, we will all die one day. That is for sure a predictable surprise. But the quality we live this life is a choice we can make every day.
