The Chinese phrase for ‘crisis’ – 危机 (weiji) – is composed of two characters. The first, ‘wei’, means ‘danger’. The second, ‘ji’, has a slightly more ambiguous etymology – but it’s been translated to mean either something akin to ‘opportunity’, or maybe ‘critical juncture’ or ‘potential turning point’. Perhaps one way of responding to the way the Covid-19 crisis is turning all our normal routines upside-down is to see it as an opportunity or a critical juncture, a moment of choice. A time for us to take stock of our lives and the values that we hold dear, and see if the priorities upon which we build our sense of ‘normal’ are indeed as important as we make them out to be. Perhaps we will find – after the initial period of loss and discomfort – that we can make adjustments to some of these ideas of ‘normal’: adjustments that may even turn out to be positive and life-giving in the deepest, most fundamental and most human sense. For a start, maybe all that staying at home will force us to confront and repair hairline cracks in family relationships that have hitherto been concealed or even exacerbated by our everyday routines of work and school. On a wider societal level, the virus crisis is revealing the flaws and inadequacies in many systems of governance – problems that have been allowed to fester unaddressed but are now contributing to the spread of the virus or getting in the way of containment efforts. Any macro-level changes will require much time, effort, and sacrifice – but this could be an opportunity to start work.

I have long thought that our first-world lifestyles and aspirations are fundamentally unsustainable. The world as it is simply is not able to support our current levels of consumption and production; our psychological make-up is not up to the stresses and strains of modern life as we have made it out to be. If anything, perhaps those of us who can afford it can use our stay-home time to reflect on our priorities and think deeply about which aspects of ‘normal’ life are worth keeping and holding on to. Extraordinary times require extraordinary responses, and business as usual, whether now, or afterwards when all this is over (and one wonders what things will look like when all this is over …) is not a viable response. If we emerge from this crisis better and stronger, it will be because we have dared to look ourselves in the eye, dared to examine our lives – and dared to make things new by changing the things that need to be changed.