A Promise To A New World x Emma Harding

Sometime between when the murmurs of COVID-19 began circulating and ultimately contracting Coronavirus and subsequently putting in emergency contingency plans for safeguarding the business, an Instagram ‘meme’ / image (I’m not sure what the best way to describe it is) was shared with me. It was supposedly an extract from a chapter of a book “The Eyes of Darkness” published in 1981. Page 555 “A Chinese Scientist carrying a diskette record of China’s most important and dangerous new biological weapon in a decade. They call the stuff Wuhan-400”. Another book or the same book, I don’t know, also predicted that “In 2020, a severe pneumonia-like illness will spread throughout the globe, attacking the lungs and the bronchial tubes and resisting all known treatments. Almost more baffling than the illness itself will be the fact that it will suddenly vanish as quickly as it arrived.”

 With very little else to show any sign of the virus relinquishing, I hung on to that last sentence for quite some weeks. In many ways, I am perhaps naively still hanging on. In situations like this, the human race tends to cling to any glimmer of hope. The reality is, we’re nearly four months into a global pandemic, a global recession is about to hit us and the devastating effects to human life around the globe make me want to rewind, or fast forward, I’m not sure which, to a place far removed from that which we live right now.

 But amongst all of this, as we all sat at home, many of us reunited with family for a period of time we’re unlikely ever to experience again, clinging to that glimmer, I realised that perhaps this was the world’s way of re-setting. As I strived to think of ways to innovate our clients, was the purpose in fact NOT to innovate? Is indeed the purpose to slow, to reflect, to stop?

 As someone who defines their year by the countries they visit, the wildlife they see, the experiences they do, I am as guilty as the next person for becoming all too consumed by the consumerism; the flights, the outfits, the gadgets… the carbon footprint!

 Who knows when this will end, IF it will end, but what I am fairly certain of, is that whilst I remain nervous, sceptical, clinging to that glimmer for all of this to end, we also have an opportunity to change the world. My fear is we will all too quickly forget. As such, as a reminder to myself, and what I hope will inspire, encourage and influence others, I asked my friends, my colleagues, my family, those who motivate me most to make a pledge.. A Promise to a New World.

 This was my ask to them: As our human world closed, the natural world re-opened; the canals ran clear, the skies went blue and the birds sang louder than ever before. Amongst all the uncertainty and fear, we saw and talked of opportunity for a better world – a caring world, a thoughtful world. As our human world slowly begins to re-emerge, let us not forget the changes and promises we made. We are all too quick to forget. Please join me in making and writing your promise (personal or professional) to this ‘new world’ that awaits us.

 So please take these pledges, let them inspire you, let them influence you, let them change you. Once you have reflected, once you have processed, it will be time to innovate once again; towards a cleaner, better, caring glimmer.

 

Emma Harding