Learning in a New Valley

If the ball does move over the top of one of the ridges, then it will roll down the side of another valley. A whole new set of parameters will be in operation in the new valley. The systems operating in this valley need to make some immediate adjustments. However, the challenge they face seem to be unlike anything they have seen before.  The ball will not be at the top of the valley when it rolls over the top of the ridge. Hence, it is not like a ball that is starting at the top of the warped plane.

Agility is demanded of both the leaders and members of the community residing in this valley. On the one hand, residents of this new valley have ample opportunity to learn from mistakes (and successes) of residents in valleys through which the ball rolled (virus invaded). This requires that residents of the new valley talk to those in the other valleys. There can be no isolation or fear of the “other” (those living in the other valleys).

On the other hand, residents of the new valley must “hit the ground running” as the ball (virus) enters their valley. They must learn some new lessons as well as listen to the lessons conveyed by residents of valleys through which the ball has previously rolled. Why must new lessons be learned? This is because the ball (virus) will never operate in the same manner in the new valley. Its trajectory at the top of the first valley (the inception of the virus) no longer operates. The ball (virus) is now entering each valley from a different angle, at different speeds. It is received in different ways in each valley—depending on levels of anxiety, expertise, and culture-based attitudes about the ball (virus).

A large health care system that downsizes will never be the same as a smaller system that was never large in the first place. A reformed alcoholic will never be the same as a lifelong teetotaler. The reformed alcoholic, for instance, might be more compassionate (or less compassionate) regarding those who are still active drinkers. The wounds caused by downsizing will never really heal. We can never again be indifferent to a threatening pandemic once we have experienced an outbreak of one virus. Pandora’s box can never be closed again—the evils of our world (and the virus) have been let loose and can’t be recovered or fully controlled. What about the next virus to hit our shores? A new virus outbreak is perceived in a different manner from a virus that has been moving through communities for several months. And what about viruses that has been with us for many years and that is only occasionally given much attention?

Multiple Valleys and Multiple Truths: Perhaps We Are the Ball

The challenge and potential harm become even more profound when we recognize that the ball in real life may be residing simultaneously in two or more valleys—as certainly is the case with a virus. Technically, it is a bit different if the single ball splits into two or more balls at the top of the plane or if there were always two or more balls operating all the time on the warped plane.

In the case of the current virus, the ball appears to have split and multiplied – though in the case of COVID-19 there has been some speculation that it actually broke out in several locations, perhaps over an extended period of time. There may have been multiple balls let loose at the top of the plane. The corona virus, in some form, might actually have been with us for quite a while— in which case the ball is not new to us but has been rolling around our valley undetected or mis- perceived for an unknown period of time.

We might even come to realize that we are living in several different valleys and can’t simply wait for the ball (virus) to leave one valley. As global citizens, we are not only living ourselves in multiple valleys—we are required to embrace multiple truths and perspectives arising from our life in each valley. And we must care about what happens in these other valleys, for we live there too. We are living in and journey through multiple valleys on a warped plane. Being a global citizen during this challenging era of VUCA plus and COVID-19 is quite a challenge.