AN OPEN PHONE CALL BETWEEN THE NEW CORONAVIRUS AND MYSELF
ME: Hello, who is it?
CORONA: Hi. It’s Corona. The virus. What do you want?
ME: Oh, hi Corona, is it really you?
CORONA: Yes.
ME: Wow, I heard so much about you. There is so much I want to know. But let me ask you, why are you here?
CORONA: What do you mean?
ME: I guess I mean, what is your purpose?
CORONA: Oh it’s not much different from yours I suppose. What’s yours?
ME: I don’t know.
CORONA: I see. What do you think my purpose is?
ME: To decrease the world’s population? Kill us off?
CORONA: No, no. Not at all. You are confused. I’ll explain. I’m here to open your eyes. That’s all. Since you’re asking me this question your ears seem to have opened a bit already, at least they opened to all the buzz in the news about me.
But did you really think this is about me? I’m just a living organism like you. You could say my purpose is the same as yours: simply to live and keep on living, reproduce if you like. But, as you might already have guessed, I have another agenda too.
ME: Wow. What is it?
CORONA: As I said, to open your eyes.
ME: Okay. To what?
CORONA: Oh, I suppose towards this purpose that you are asking about.
ME: So, what is it? What is the purpose you, or I guess I, am talking about?
CORONA: Oh, it’s in everything. You just don’t seem to see it very clearly so I’m here to open your eyes to it. I’m not here to kill people. How many did I kill compared to human inventions like hunger? Hunger as a result of inequality or your wars I mean. Nature doesn’t kill people. You, I mean humanity, seem very much attracted to death. So I, on behalf of nature, need to use death to a certain measure to be able to catch your attention. But I’m really harmless, I can assure you.
ME: Well, you certainly caught our attention.
CORONA: Yes. So you come to me and ask why I’m here, and I’m asking you to look at yourself. Look at the world, earth, humanity and nature. Why all this destruction, all this suffering? I’m asking you that question. I came to ask you this.
Now you are seemingly asking me about my purpose but I’m asking you to see it from another perspective. Could it be that I’m just the means here? Like you are using telephones as a means to reach other people. Could it be that the Question is really not mine, but yours? The million dollar question of humanity. Could it be that it was there all the time? You just needed a little call from me to see it, to ask it. Why did you pick up the phone? Do you think it was me who called you? No, you called me.
ME: So… what should I do? Or I guess what should we do, humanity?
CORONA: Stop killing each other and the earth.
ME: Okay, you made your point, but it’s not that easy.
CORONA: What do you mean?
ME: We don’t really want to kill or harm each other or nature. It just … happens. It’s as if we’re built this way. We don’t even ask why.
CORONA: Are you sure? Why did you call me? What about those hairy people some decades ago who listened to rock n roll and took different medicines seemingly trying to heal themselves?
ME: What? The hippies? Sure, they tried … But they stopped, or were stopped. I don’t know. What I mean is, it seems like whatever we do to make things better it eventually turns into something harmful and we’re back where we started.
CORONA: Not this time.
ME: What do you mean? Corona, what are you really up to here?
CORONA: I work on all levels. I’m inside your bodies, I’m in your minds and attentions, across all borders, across gender and status. I’m everywhere, even in your dreams. This little campaign of mine is something totally new. It wasn’t possible just a few decades ago. But you made the preparations for it to actually happen: the infrastructure, people travelling and flying all over the world, the internet for information to spread. I’m telling you what’s happening now has never happened before. The whole of humanity is occupied by the one and very same thing. It seems to be a little virus. A virus in the system perhaps, a little something penetrating all levels of reality … And the funny thing is that there is nothing new, it’s the same million dollar question as always: What is the purpose? What is the meaning of life? What do we want? The only difference, the only novelty here is in the way the question is being asked. Don’t try to fool me, I know it was you who called me and not the other way. You, I mean humanity, even prepared this whole connected world, this “globalism” just to make it possible for ME: the million dollar question — to penetrate on all levels of reality, all levels of humanity and human perception to biology and interpersonal relations, all this to really make it possible for you to feel this question to the core. That’s all.
ME: So we just need to ask the question?
CORONA: That’s what I’m telling you. All I want is for you to really ask it. You need to know why you’re asking it. You have the reason already, again don’t try to fool me, look at the suffering on your planet, I’ve never seen such a thing. It’s all inside you of course, just like I am. You need to really want to know the answer, and when you do, you will see that you already have it, deep inside. You need to dig deep this time, deeper than ever. You are not hippies or hairy monkeys coming down the trees any longer.
Anyway, I’m repeating myself now. I’m just here to open your eyes.
ME: I don’t know what to say…
CORONA: Don’t say anything. Close your mouth, put on a mask. Stay inside. Wash your hands. Keep away from others, not to harm them. Do not connect to the outside world. This is something internal. The answer is not on the outside.
ME: Where …
CORONA: Why do you think this million dollar question of humanity appears in the form of a virus? It’s in the connection stupid. The lesson is simple, you just need to internalize it. Keep going with your inherited bad nature, keep doing business as usual, connect between yourselves as usual and you STAY sick. Or find a new way, a good way. What way is it? You need to find out by yourselves. I’m just giving the hints. Don’t worry I’ll stick around ’til you get it. Call me when you need me, bye now.
