THE BEAUTY OF THE CORONAVIRUS

The Coronavirus brought back bird’song. Well maybe the virus didn’t actually bring back the birds but the quiet streets and exhaust-fume free environment are now allowing people to hear the music of nature to fill their ears. This, together with the Italians singing from their balconies the Venetians can for the first time see fish and other marine life in the usually murky water, all of this got me started on this article, I was on the phone with my friend Chris, he is a deep thinker, Hey, I said to him, say something good about anxiety, “I inquired of him.

“It feels like c**p,” he said flatly. I knew I would be able to get a response from him that would cut to the chase. “Think positively man,” I  insisted. I’m trying to find out if at all, anxiety ever helped you? Give me a specific example, please.”

“I get anxious about money, and then my anxiety helps me cut through the avoidance,” Chris remarked. And I take care of what needs to be done. Getting anxious at the right time keeps me out of trouble.”

Since nobody likes being anxious, the experience of anxiety can be protective and even life-preserving. Just as physical pain tells us to get our hands out of the fire, our fear tells us-once we’ve been burned-to be cautious around a fire, the next time around. The fight-or-flight response that anxiety evokes can save our lives – that is if either fighting or fleeing happens to be the wisest thing to do in the face of a present danger.

Anxiety is really a positive warning sign that can stop you from doing something stupid. I remember hearing a sad story a week ago about a young man, a Juventus soccer player, Daniele Rugani who ran around exposing himself, by touching several objects and daring the contagion to affect him and doing so in the face of the existing threat of the Coronavirus and belittling his teammates who had a normal healthy respect for this potentially lethal virus.The team was tested a short while later and he was the first one who tested positive for the virus.