A Positive Message During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Yesterday, I heard "The Great Realisation" by Probably Tomfoolery - first on the radio while driving  to take Cooper to the vet, and then I watched the video at home. Each time I was captivated by the message of what life was like before the virus and what it has been like since.

The story speculates what life will be like once a cure for COVID-19 happens. Will people go back to their old ways or will they want to stay with what life has been like?

Have there been positive changes in your life because of COVID-19 and the stay-at-home orders?

This video is worth taking a few minutes to watch.



Here is the written version of the story:

Tell me the one about the virus again.
Then I'll go to bed.
But my boy, your growing weary,
sleepy though about your head.

Please! That's ones my favorite.
I promise, just once more.

Ok, Snuggle down, my boy,
though I know you know full well,
this story starts before then
in a world, I once would dwell.

It was a world of waste and wonder
of poverty and plenty,
back before we understood
why hindsight's twenty-twenty.

You see the people came up with companies
to trade across all lands.
But they swelled and got much bigger
than we ever could have planned.

We'd always had out wants,
but now it got so quick.
You could have anything you dreamed of
in a day, and with a click.

We noticed families had stopped talking.
That's not to say they never spoke,
but the meaning must have melted
and the work-life balance broke.

And the children eyes get squarer
and every toddler had a phone.
They filtered out the imperfections
but amidst the noise they felt alone.

And every day the skies grew thicker
till you couldn't see the stars.
So we flew in planes to find them
while down below we filled out cars.

We'd drive around all day in circles,
we'd forgotten how to run.
We swapped the grass for tarmac,
shrunk the parks 'till there were none.

We filled the seas with plastic
because our waist was never capped.
Until each day when you went fishing,
you'd pull them out already wrapped.

And while we drank and smoked and gambled
our leaders taught us why.
It's best to not upset the lobbies
more convenient to die.

But then in 2020,
a new virus came out way.
The governments reacted
and told us to all to hide away.

But while we all were hidden
amidst the fear and all the while,
the people dusted off their instincts.
They remembered how to smile.

They started clapping to say thank you
and calling up their mums
And while the car keys gather dust
they would look forward to their runs.

And when the skies less full of voyages
the earth began to breath
And the beaches bore new wildlife
that scuttled off into the seas.

Some people started dancing,
some were singling, some were baking.
We'd grown so used to bad news
but some good news was in the making.

And so when the found the cure,
and were allowed to go outside,
we all preferred the world we found,
to the one, we'd left behind.

Old habits became in extinct
and they made for the new.
And every simple act of kindness
was now given its due.

But why did it take a virus
to bring the people back together?
Well, sometimes you've got to get sick,
my boy, before you start feeling better.

Now lie down and dream of tomorrow
and all the things that we can do.
And who knows, if you dream hard enough,
maybe some of them will come true.

We now call it the Great Realizations
and yes, since then, there have been many,
but that's the story of how it started
and why hindsight is twenty-twenty.