I don’t know, and it is ok. I watch the flames, transforming what once were branches and leaves into ashes. Soon they will be the fertile soil for new greenery; today they don’t have a proper destination yet. I think about my own life, the transformation I am in. I have to admit that I don’t know, and it is ok.

Corona launched us in the Big Unknown, and we cannot but accept it.

Governments are taking decisions to stop the pandemics, even though they do not know if it will be the right one. Hospitals apply different treatments, even though they are not sure what would be the best one. Scientists are experimenting with vaccines and medication, even though they do not know what they will find.

It might be right; it might be wrong; doing something is better than nothing at all. There have not been precedents of this scale. There have been smaller epidemics of which we could learn, other viruses to cope with, but never has it been precisely Covid-19, nor a pandemic of this scale and magnitude.

We don’t know. And that is ok.

Guided by the Blind

Nobody knows really what is right or wrong, what should be the next step, or what should have been the previous step. Should they release the lockdowns, or would it be too early? How long should people really self-quarantine and how many people could they really see? What would be the best social distancing distance; and what should be the safest way to do groceries?

There is no right or wrong; while there is a lot of right and wrong at the same time. We need answers, we want to know who to listen to, and who to blame; we want to know who is the saviour, and who the scapegoat. We are looking for guidance through the chaos, but sometimes we might be guided by the blind.

We don’t know. And that is ok.

Time Travelling

We are writing history today. Not only because this is a legendary episode of life, as un unexpected extra episode of Star Wars; but as well because it has no precedents. Still we are looking in the past to get as much meaning and explanations as possible.

We look back at the Spanish Flue after the First World War, when social distancing was applied, yet where the measures were released too early, and the disease took a second peak, killing a tremendous number of people.

We look back at the time of SARS and MERS, other Corona diseases; at Ebola, and even HIV. We look back at other pandemics, how they arose, how they spread, and we coped with them. We look back at other zoonoses, at other global pandemics, at other unknown diseases.

Yet, none of them had the scale and the rapid spread as this one.

In our time travelling for answers, we learn a lot, but we learn as well that this episode had no precedents precisely as the one, we are currently facing.

Gazing back and forward, we face the Big Unknown, and that is ok.

Covid-19 might not have precedents, but so might have the flexibility and resilience of many sectors as we know it. Laboratories are working on a non-existing vaccine, hospitals were converted into non-existing units ‘the Covid-19 units’, industries are devoted to create the weapons of our era: mouth masks and ventilators.

Scientists, doctors, industries, and politicians, they all are learning at an unprecedent rapid scale, but none of them would have known what to do a few months ago.

We live in the Unknown, and it’s ok.

Embrace the Unknown

We could fight the Big Unknown, blame the ones without answers, try to figure out good and wrong, or just accept that we don’t know and make the best of it. We could fight the Big Unknown of our own lives, and try to execute the plans we made regardless the changing décor they will have to work in, or just accept that they might not be executable anymore at all.

We might resist to the Big Unknown by insisting to keep up with the ideas and expectations we had of life as we knew it, regardless if they will fit in in the world as we will get to know it. Or we can accept the Big Unknown, set our plans and ideas aside, and make the best of what we do know, what we do control.

We can accept the Big Unknown; accept that no answer is an answer as well; accept that trial and error might be the only way to find out; accept that our plans and ideas will change over time, adapt to the changing world around us; accept that we can only live in the present moment and place, because tomorrow will never come as we imagine it today.

We live in the Big Unknown, and it is ok, if you are ok with it. If you don’t fight it, the available knowledge will grow. If you don’t resist, you can dedicate your energy to that what does matter, to that what you do know and control.

Welcome in the age of the Big Unknown, it is all fine.

This article is part of the series of Hope in Times of Corona. Read

• how this times of self-isolation should not mean loneliness,
• how you can contribute to this battle, 
• how gratitude lights up the dark,  
• how united we will stand strong
• on the most util strategy in awake of a crisis 
• how I got blown of my feet as well, but caught by many caring hands, 
• how being calm can get us through the storm.
• about Love in Times of Corona
• how to discover your own talents 
• why we need stories to hold on to 
• how you can be creative and innovative.
• how to spend your mot valuable assets in times of Corona.
• how to listen to the sound of silence. 
• How breate taking Corona really is.
• discover the other freedoms Corona has shown us, 
• about the new-born freedom Corona gave us.
• about another way to exceed your personal bubble.
• about the position of nature in this entire story
• about nature bouncing back
• about the crucial choice between resilience and resistance
• about the game to play
• about star gazing in dark times
• About looking for Meaning
• about what Easter and Corona have in Common
• About the Shark and the Turtle
• About the Irony of Distance
• Why to Hold on
• Fake News

Or wait until tomorrow, when I’ll shine another light on yet another positive corner of this dark times.