- Credits:
- UNHCR
Helen’s Place LLC UPDATE July 6, 2022
People are on the move all over the world. In the U.S. many are quitting their jobs in sufficient numbers to get the attention of reporters calling it “The Great Resignation.”
Could it be that the Covid-19 era or political unrest in America launched people into rethinking what they want to do, and where they want to live doing it?
Although career experts advise people to plan their next job move carefully, people are making decisions with unusual urgency.
They’re finding ways to beg, barter, salvage and share their way through faster moves and career changes, and it isn’t easy. If only funding was plentiful!
Maybe human instinct is causing people to flee from Covid like they did from other plagues in past centuries. However, this time it’s more complicated because some are using this event as a catalyst to get somewhere they always dreamed of being while there’s still time, or to make the most of the time they have left on the earth before a future Covid wave takes them out.
This type of purposeful action might be called “pathfinding” rather than panic flight.
Perhaps the five million deaths and counting on the planet, or the threats to democracy, are seeping into our thinking in ways we can’t imagine. Those with high emotional intelligence appear to have gotten the message that the time to act is now. It’s Interesting that sometimes early adopters – the people who go first – achieve success because they include calculated risks in their planning.
They also expect to find difficulty along the way, and know they might fail. But trying for them is better than doing nothing, and they’re incredibly resourceful. Sometimes they’re salvaging old vans and converting them to homes on wheels, or traveling on foot, bus, train or air.
Whatever it takes – money or not, off they go!
For the majority who don’t leave, they too would be better off living with the awareness that adversity is part of life and tomorrow they might die – but they don’t. Perhaps to live for today – “Carpe Diem,” as the Neapolitans’ say, is something humans aren’t wired to do. If you thought you might die, why get up in the morning?
No, we’re wired to get up, so we tend to live as though our lives will never end. This is evident by the day-to-day trivia and petty grievances that people get caught up in. It explains why many are stubbornly trying to get back to the past by denying the present exists. Unfortunately, In the Covid era, denial can prove deadly and we’re going to lose a lot of people.
But just imagine for a moment if a denier would compensate for their rigidness by sharing a little money with a pathfinder on their way out the door, saying “I’m not going, I don’t believe in your cause, but here’s $500 for your journey. Good luck!” The world would instantly be in a better place for their generosity during hard times. This is helpful wishful thinking.
Recently, the United Nations Refuge Agency (UNHCR) reporting that 84 million people are displaced in the world, and in many cases they ARE fleeing. The suffering they are experiencing is vivid, not only from Covid but also from political strife, famine, war, climate change and poverty. But along with suffering, many carry great hope for their future, and this is what they have in common with the pathfinders. There’s something about trying that’s incredibly powerful!
Closer to home we see asylum seekers at the American Mexican borders, piled up and begging to enter the U.S. Within the U.S., waves of people are moving in and out of towns and cities across the country, bartering along the way with fellow pathfinders as they travel to get places.
It’s hard to grasp this incredible number of people striving to survive and get somewhere better to start new lives!
The media, focused on petty grievances, isn’t capturing the bigger picture of human migration around the earth. Only on a small scale are stories being told – like the series “Maid” on Netflix where a young mother survives against all odds, efforting to move toward a better life.
It reminds us how scarce resources are to help people, and how much better off we’d be if there were a global effort to help people move and find jobs. Unfortunately, most people are on their own to figure a path forward.
Pathfinders sure could use a wallet or two taken out of back pockets, from the outstretched arms of people with heads buried in the sand.
“Here take it, I don’t need it!” they might say in our better imaginings about them as generous people.
Related Audio/Video Interview You might be interested in:
Discussion of human migration around the world:
Wilson Quarterly Fall 2021: Humanity in Motion | Scenes from the Global Displacement Crisis
Other related article you might be interested in:
Helen’s Place LLC, “Why Some People Have to Search So Hard To Find A Place in this World”
At Helen’s Place LLC we’re watching the migration phenomena and writing about resources and ways to help people on the move. We welcome any suggestions readers have about how to help. Please send email to us at info@helensplacenet.com.
