The story we have to recall when we are beset with all sorts of problems or about to reach the end of the road is the Pandora’s Box. When the box is opened it spews all the worst kinds of problems you could think of. Disease, pestilence, famine, individual troubles, etc. But along with all of these comes hope. Hope for a better tomorrow.
As one spiritual guru once said, when you start thinking that everything is about to end, then the silver lining to all the troubles you had been going through starts revealing itself in the horizon. And so a new beginning. For the better.
With our semi lockdown situation, a lot of us are in trouble. More so those in the fringes of the economy like minimum wage earners. No work, no pay, no food. Whatever assistance that is on the way will take a little time. But take heart, be stead fast and help will come. The basics of life though are still the same. If you have forgotten, this might be the time to be reminded of what everybody had been saying all along— God helps those who help themselves.
Another basic thing to remember is positive thinking. Just by the change of attitude from being negative to positive can mean the whole world. You would be able to appreciate that a problem which can be a cause for suicide to the weak of heart can be an opportunity for another who is looking at the situation from another angle. Let us be the one who looks at situations from the positive angle.
Then there is that adage somewhat related to the first one we mentioned above which is that success is somehow related to action. Whatever situation you are in now– whether it is how to get transportation to go to market, or how to bring a sick member of the family to hospital, or how to get food for tomorrow or the next week, or how to pay for a mortgage after the semi -lockdown is over– cannot be solved by just sitting down.
But then acting without thinking can be worse that not acting at all. Think before you act is always best. The same spiritual guru earlier mentioned here said that speed without system is dangerous, but system without speed can be useless. Thus problems can only be solved if one acted with dispatch, but there has to be a plan. You cannot accomplish anything just by running around like a headless chicken. However, a plan no matter how good but not implemented will just remain a plan.
Perhaps it won’ t hurt if we remembered these in getting out from the quandaries we might be in now, and in solving the draconian problems we will have to face once the semi-lockdown situation is over. While banks and other institutions have announced some measures to ease our burden on debts, the fact remains that we will still have to pay.**