The COVID-19 pandemic altered realities and forever changed the course of human history.

Five years ago this week, time felt as if it was being stretched like a reflective portrait on a distorted funhouse mirror. It was a period where the everyday rhythms of life came to a halt and created a disorienting existence—it became known as the “new normal.” It was a time defined by tremendous loss and upheaval. The new normal was not so much about masks, social distancing, vaccines, herd immunity, or government-mandated restrictions as we begrudgingly remember. It was about a catastrophic global pandemic the world had never dealt with in the modern era that disrupted and exposed the weaknesses in our human-built systems. 

Today, we’re still recovering and learning from that period. Many systems held, some were weakened, and others collapsed. Systems are anything that involves a process. Attending school, performing work, traveling on an airplane, eating meals at a restaurant or home, participating in worship services, shopping, and getting health care are more than mere activities. They are systems built on processes, people, and resources. In a moment of crisis, systems often fail. In a global catastrophe, multiple systems and the larger systems that enable the function of the others break down creating panic and disorder.

Instructions to “stay home” and “shut down” were messaged as a humanitarian responsibility to “slow the spread.” Real people were seriously ill and dying every day with no effective treatments known or available for an emerging and contagious disease early on in the pandemic. In the end, as of April 2024, there were over 7 million confirmed deaths worldwide caused by COVID-19, and today larger estimates of the true death toll range from 18 to 33 million.

For those concerned about their health and the well-being of others, “slowing the spread” was a noble and sacrificial cost of living in a global community. For others, it was perceived as an affront to their liberty. Beyond debates of responsibility to self and others was another unfolding story. As the world reckoned with an uncontrollable pandemic, we experienced a real-life glimpse of what armageddon could look like—and we didn’t like what we saw.

The systems we rely on to sustain living in the modern world and enable progress were exposed as deeply vulnerable, and by implication, so are we. If a microscopic virus could bring the world to its knees, then how much more could intelligent beings with the capacity to destroy economies through cyber-attacks or launch nuclear weapons against their enemies? Suddenly, the prospects of human fallibility, mortality, and the capability to experience mutual destruction in a matter of days were no longer confined to fictional “what ifs.” It was a tangible and real possibility like never before.

Everyone lost someone or something in the weeks, months, and years following those harrowing days in March 2020. The collective trauma that has been imprinted on every person will live with us for a lifetime. We are not defined by that time, but we are forever changed. Now, our task is to integrate our individual experiences and shared stories into a new way of living that creates hope for each other.

Some have chosen the pathway of denialism and regression. Confronting the reality of our frailty and societal vulnerabilities is deeply troubling and exposing. A worldview built on stories of inheriting a great and powerful nation is tantalizing until it’s exposed as misguided, unrealistic, or fraudulent. Dissonance has a way of breaking an individual free to see the world through a new lens or entrenching them deeper into a broken system that requires denial, regression, and alternative narratives to keep the old story alive. Demonstrating compassion for those who struggle to see is vital to rebuilding the future because everyone belongs.

The pathway to hope is learning to view the world holistically. The ability to see ourselves and the systems we interact with as objects of a greater whole requires openness and humility. Values like these help us regularly orient ourselves with the facts and reality as it unfolds.

Hope is the act of reconciling what was to what is to what can be. Building a resilient future begins with confronting our past and frailty with new ways of seeing and collaborating in a globally interdependent future. The systems of yesteryear are no longer sufficient. Denialism and regression cannot deliver a better tomorrow without tremendous pain and suffering.

The world is struggling to pick up the pieces and is growing more isolated from each other, not closer. Sustainable living, security without force, and equal opportunity for all will be the achievements of everyday values-based leaders who seek to build a better tomorrow for everyone, everywhere. 

Thank you for reading!

What you’re reading is my calling—my gift and contribution to you and others. It’s a message of hope and change for our time that I intend to continue writing about and speaking on. I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve launched a support page this week, where you can learn how to become a supporter of my work. As promised, subscribing to my daily newsletter is free. But now, you can also help ensure its accessibility and sustain this work. Learn how.