Baby Rhinoceros
Can we measure a gestation period for the response to the pandemic?
There was a time in my late 20s when I experienced a huge shift. It felt earth shattering. It was a period when I found it very hard to make sense of things. Things fell apart. I went through it and eventually landed on my feet. I took measures to gain simplicity in my life. I progressed toward wellness each day.
About a year and a half later, from what felt like a pivotal marker in time with so much collapsing, I was still on the road of rebuilding. There were moments when I had to quiet the judgmental voices in my head. Rather than engage the inner critique, I’d simply say to myself, “It’s like a baby rhinoceros.”
It takes 16-18 months for a baby rhinoceros to gestate in its mother’s womb. Certainly a span of time that could be perceived as short or long, depending your vantage point. While it felt like a long enough time for me to sort out what happened from those life events, I also took the vantage point that it was still shorter than some mammals gestation periods for giving life to new beings.
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We’re approaching 16 months since the most recent pandemic showed up in a significant way in our lives. For many it felt like an event that would certainly shift a multitude of things. Although it wasn’t one event, more a serious of events, and from some perspective it was a process. A jarring process for many. Overwhelming and so much to process and make sense from.
For the rhinoceros that got pregnant in early 2020, she still wouldn’t have had the baby by now. Think of the various time and perspectives you can reference to what you’ve been experiencing over the past year and a half. Time can seem like a tricky thing, but perspective is gold. What has transpired for you and are you do what you need to assimilate and integrate your experiences?
How are you going to slow down and make sense of what has happened? Life in not a Netflix series to binge watch. Life is not a story for someone else to write for you. Life is not a series of catastrophes with accompanying beliefs and behaviors given to you by an external governing entity.
Life is yours to choose. Life is yours to take your time with. Life is yours to make your own decisions and not feel pressured to have to defer to another authority. And sometimes segments of life need some perspective and reference to other glorious things in nature like a freakin’ baby rhinoceros.
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Yes, gestation is often in reference to physical birthing, but it can be for ideas, emotions, metaphysical processing. I just can't help but think of how we're living in times where so much is being 'sped up' and each individual isn’t given enough space to make sense of it. Is such a thing valued anymore?
I'm not sure if our individual processing and integration works well at such a high speed pace. Is there enough breathing room to truly assimilate the experiences we're currently living?
In the past 16 months, most Americans were informed of a deadly virus, and quickly saw jobs and key aspects of daily living come to a sudden halt. They were told to quarantine and lockdown. It was insisted that behavior change included social distancing and mask wearing. Soon after, stigmas developed for those who were perceived as not following the appropriate behavior protocol.
Still within this timeframe a new vaccine was introduced into the population. First there was speculation of when it would arrive. Then suddenly appearing in a magical expediency. A huge campaign and distribution to disseminate the vaccine. Another round of virtue signaling, in-group/out-group dynamics and further cultural stigmas from one group to another. After a few months of this, we start getting messaging from mainstream media outlets about the “end of the pandemic” - but only if you do what they say is needed.
Yet the gestation of a baby rhinoceros during this time has yet to be completed.
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No baby rhinoceros yet.
All of this happened, and it’s all supposed to just make plain and simple sense to each individual. So much information and messaging shared throughout 16 months. During which there was much uncertainly around misinformation and disinformation. Censorship by media and tech companies, and stifled discussions hindered any necessary helpful inquiry.
While I know it’s not a Netflix series to binge, it appears some are treating it that way. Watching it all happen, and following along with the script. Doesn’t real life work differently? Isn’t life more interactive? Are there questions asked and courses corrected? Or is there a speed and authority that gets put in place in which these things are overridden?
As far as I know, it still takes a rhinoceros and other larger mammals 16-18 months to have their babies. Have they sped this up? Have they changed the game of life? Not yet. Humans, well, they try to change the game. For better or worse. If it’s so sped up that it’s worse, then they need to slow down.