It's May 16th. We are somewhere in the Corona pandemic. How do you experienced the situation at the moment?
I experienced the situation a lot different to a couple of weeks ago when it all started. When the social distancing started and we all became aware that it is a global pandemic. In the beginning, I was really in shock. Plus, I saw in other countries like the UK and Spain and Italy a lot of people dying and and the hospitals really struggling.
And I was personally in in shock because from one day to the other, I've lost nearly all my clients. I basically have no income now. And was a couple of weeks ago. And now that has changed into a phase where I adapt and continue to adapt to the situation.
It has a global impact, and that may sound weird, but I find that also he also very, very interesting as a kind of a social experiment that we're all part of. And I think I'm quite lucky because my family is safe. I have an office space near where we live. So we all have enough space to have our virtual workshops. My my oldest son has a university digitally and my younger son has school on microsoft teams. I think we have a new normal now.
And I'm lucky because I did a lot of workshops last year on how to deal with VUCA. So I'm actually I could actually use the tools and methods I taught others to embrace the unknown.
So when you look back at this time, is there anything you learn or you observed about or self or the city or the society you live in? Is there anything that you would consider an insight or learning?
In Germany, as a society, we have people begin to be more divided. There is a lot of people who tend to believe that it's all not true or that the virus does not exists and the government is lying to us, which is, of course, all completely untrue. And I think people do that because they actually fear change and they can't fully understand the complexity of what is going on.
And in the beginning people were acting quite good, keeping to the social distancing rules and staying at home, helping others. And now I'm a bit scared that society is drifting apart. And when we're looking at looking, for example, to the UK, what happened with Brexit, that people who just didn't get the whole idea of how our country functions, that we're all in this together, they thought it would be better if Britain were not part of the EU anymore. And I have a similar thoughts on how things could develop here and in Germany. So I actually I see a shift to a more divided society.
On the other hand, I experience a lot of beautiful stuff that has been going on between people. People are helping each other. People organise food. So I see a lot of initiatives also.
So on the one hand, a polarization, on the other hand, people starting initiatives to soften the impact of this crisis for the groups and support themselves.
Yes, exactly. It's very polarized and that is never good.
Ok. So we looked in the present and we looked at your experience in the last two to three months. If we turn our gaze into the future, maybe into a time where we learned to live well with the virus, what what do you want more of or less of?
I would want more of is a more conscious and sustainable economy, better health systems in all the countries that do not have good health systems, as we can see now. And I would love to have a human and earth centered economy, so we just produce what what we need and do not destroy nature and our own planet.
I love the idea that that we've been sent home by Earth to think about what we're doing to it. What we do with nature and how we want to live. And if we want to have more generations living on this planet.
When you think of the future, what would be your wildest dream, something that you maybe don't even dare to dream?
Actually, my wildest dream would be that we live with nature in a way that we don't destroy it. And my wildest dream would be that I see my sons founding their own families and seeing my grandchildren play on a on the clean beach, in clear blue water and a sky that is not polluted.
I've been thinking about this question before. And it's a bit sad that this is my wildest dream, because actually I'm not expecting to be a grandmother because I don't think the Earth is healthy enough to have future generations living on it. And I know that in a lot of younger people don't expect to found their own families again. So that's really sad.
But I think we've we've been given another chance to to rethink how we live and how we we really want to be in a unity with our planet.
Anything else you want to add?
I think we need more stories of we what we need less of. In our economy and our society is always more, more, more and sometimes less can be can be beautiful. I know that I'm in a very privileged position because we don't have to worry about food and we're safe here in Germany.
But I had this one moment, I think three weeks into the shutdown where I stood in front of my closet and asked myself, what do I need all these clothes for? I've literally worn only two pairs of sneakers since all this started, and I'm very happy with that. And, I think we should create stories of how we can be happy with with less.
Thank you. Beautiful. I will stop the recording.
