COVID-19: Dialogical Reflections

COVID-19: Dialogical Reflections

Description:
No one can deny the fact that the pandemic has changed our lives since it began towards the end of 2019. Many have expressed the view that the years 2020 and 2021 seemed to have morphed into a single block of time marked by feelings that is more often than not are tainted with fear. Perhaps it is interesting to note that scientists have discovered that time does seem to slow down during emergency situations or danger, which describes the pandemic that we all have experienced (or is still experiencing). When a person is scared, a brain area called the amygdala which makes memories become more active, and as more memories are formed time seems drawn out (Lynn Schmidt The Monster that ate time, STAR 6/2/22 p13). This physiological effect on the brain perhaps is not unrelated to the ‘miseries’ that we have faced.

The compilation that make up this book COVID-19: Dialogical Reflections is an attempt to capture experiences of the pandemic in the last 2 or more years. Coming from various backgrounds and countries, the contributors discuss the challenges as well as the solutions that many have creatively put together in their ‘moments of despair’ as it were, to overcome these challenges. As the virus is still with us, perhaps many of the suggestions for coping with the ‘New Normal’ will be relevant for a while yet.

The reader should therefore find this book useful not only as a real record or testimony of the experiences of the pandemic but also as a good reference for useful suggestions of coping mechanisms. The book also highlights the life-changing aspect of the historical phenomenon that the pandemic has come to stand for, one which is very much linked to the current geological Epoch or Age of the Anthropocene which has now set upon us. The Anthropocene also marks the beginning of the “New Normal” especially with regards to our treatment of Nature in the past and in the future.