Current events’ anxieties and then, hindsight...

These times are generating plenty of anxieties, everywhere and for everyone. From Covid, to Trump (here in America) or other fascist head of states, to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there’s been, and still is, plenty to worry about. In spite of the fact that some of us seem less concerned about these events that we don’t control, we’re all affected by them at all kinds of levels, even if we don’t want to show our concern for them. 

The problem is indeed that we generally have absolutely no control, no solution and no strategy to change the course of these events and that’s what is killing us. The feeling it’s just like being a passenger on a bus, plane or train wreck and seeing no tangible way to save ourselves. 

Yet, for those of us who are old enough to look at former catastrophic events, like 9/11, school shootings, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we can see what strategies or best practices could have quelled these developments and stopped them at their inception, but when the event is on-going, panic sorts of sets in and we are feeling totally helpless.

We say hindsight is always 20/20, and that is so true. We need to navigate into chaos and feel every bit of pain possible after going through it, in order to be able to reflect and see what solutions might have worked or could have alleviated the whole situation, but these always appear clearly only after the fact, after the train has left the station, which tells a lot about our problem-solving capabilities when faced with the unforeseen or the unknown. 

The answer to all of that would be to keep these facts in mind, stay super-cool, do whatever we are capable of to help, even a tiny bit, but never lose our minds, lose sleep or go insane over whatever we cannot control.