Headmaster's Weekly Newsletter -- Week 18

Generally speaking, a little bit of tension is good. A parachute without tension in its lines will fail. A fisherman who allows slack in his line may lose his catch. A team that is too relaxed will not perform to the best of its abilities.  However, too much tension causes lines to break, athletes to “tense up” and choke, and relationships to erupt into conflict.

 

And so it is with the Coronavirus. We need to be sensible yet sympathetic, confident yet wary, prepared but not pre-occupied.  It is a delicate balance and one can sense the tension that is gripping the globe and starting to be felt in our School.  While I marvel at the intellectual, economic, and political horsepower that is coming together to deal with the virus, my thoughts are with the families of everyone affected.  Even for us at KES, the Chinese New Year is typically a happy celebration. It is muted this year and fraught with concern for family and friends in affected areas. Simple questions like: “Will I be able to travel this March Break?” may not have simple answers.  The answer for most is yes…for now…it depends... This may change. Tension rises in times of uncertainty.

 

While I don’t worry for a second that the combined international resources are putting protocols in place to put this outbreak behind us, in times like this I worry about rising levels of anxiety and fear. These are negative emotions that will affect not only our ability to go about (“to perform”) our daily routines successfully, but will adversely affect our relationships and personal health.  Being blindly optimistic is foolish, of course, but we can be optimistically diligent in how we access information and respond to it. At the School, we are keeping a watchful eye on developments to ensure that everyone in our community remains safe.