It´s March 20. We are at the beginning or somewhere in the Corona pandemic. How do you experience the situation at the moment?
For me personally I really feel my privilege a lot in this situation because for me this means it's not likely to have really serious consequences for my life. Maybe for a few months, for my finance but it's not that I feel very endangered in that sense.
And at the same time I have this acute awareness of the fact that many people don't have the choice to self isolate – like factory workers and obviously medical medical workers. But what hurts me the most, what pains me the most is that the higher class can stay at home while the people who are already suffering the most, the lower classes don't have the choice to do that. And so I feel like like every crisis hits the weakest the most. And this is something that keeps me occupied.
So they say that every crisis also has maybe the momentum to change something. So when you think about the current situation, what window of opportunity do you see open at the moment?
Maybe I can talk about hope. Maybe my my hope is that we are learning to live differently. Everyone is learning to spend less, if nothing else, because stores are close and we're learning to live with less. And many of us are also just have the opportunity to think about what really matters. And I hope that we're also seeing, what happens to to to our planet while everyone is on lockdown is also quite inspiring, I think.
And I really like something that a Slovenian scientist said: yes, we are seeing a decrease in pollution and everything, and that might actually save more lives than the Corona takes. But at the same time, that does not mean that pandemics are good for society. They're not. They're really bad. But at the same time, maybe we can keep some of the new habits we need to develop to keep our planet healthy as well.
Yes. Thank you. So, yeah, when you think of you personally or a society, assuming that we are at the end of the Corona pandemic, what do you want to see more of or less of?
I want to see more compassion and this realisation that we're all human and that we're all in this together, whatever this is. And also want to see more of the taking care of nature as well. The good consequences of us travelling less, working less, spending less. And yes, I want to keep this less, the unnecessary luxuries of life that we've gotten so used to, but maybe are harming the nature or the society.
So this is one part and the other is really hoping to have less of this class differences, that somehow we'll figure out a way that we just live and value this human dignity that everybody has and that capital is not the thing that decides everything. And right now, it still seems like it is. And I'm hoping that maybe we get so far and we see that maybe human life is more valuable than production and whatever we produce.
Maybe you answered also to last question a bit, but maybe to make this last one maybe a bit personal. What is your wildest dream? What don't you even dare to dream of that might realize after we have gone through through this special time?
I think in my wildest dreams I would really want to keep this. What I found is so precious is the realisation that the gratefulness that I have for the people close to me. So this is what I really want to keep. And my wildest dream would be that nothing would ever come in the way of – I would never let anything come in the way of what I really value anymore. Like other people's opinion or money or what the authorities think. I want to be able to live my life and work and family, all different areas of my life in a way that feels really aligned. And I think that's pretty wild.
It's not concrete. But still thinking about how often I really want to do something or don't want to do something, but then I go really doubt and ponder if I really afford this or if this a good time or what will they think. Maybe this time just clarifies that maybe it just doesn't matter so much? And what really matters is what really matters to me.
Beautiful. Thank you.
