The courage to lose your composure!
Travel has always been essential for me. At the age of 20, while many were saving up for their first car, I was saving up to travel and discover the world with my backpack. It still means a great deal to me. Travel is inspiration and creativity. Traveling gives you the courage and curiosity to continually discover, to try new things.
And it makes me more relaxed: While others get annoyed about how they will ever catch up from a two-minute train delay, I can approach things like this (and many others) — thanks to my travel experiences — a little cooler and perhaps also more mellow. Always in the knowledge that there will be a way. We will reach our destination.
But over the past few months my sense of composure has been put to the test, as it certainly has for many others as well. Not only as a travel enthusiast, but also as a mother and self-employed person, as the Federal Council reassured me again and again: It will be ok. You can do it. It’s not the added burden that the virus brought with it. It is also not the mask that in part constricts my breathing. It’s the restrictions that take away my room to breathe.
In the “new normal” there are more appeals than ever: Do this. Don’t do that. And they make small freedoms impossible. The spontaneity with which I have always moved and which has enabled me to see the big picture is no longer possible. I know this is simply reality now and the next completely carefree journey is a long time coming. This can’t be changed. But it is these thoughts that, for me, take the joy out of living.
As a society, we may even experience a state of post-traumatic stress disorder. Fear dominates and trust is lacking. That is precisely why I think it is important that we don’t just brush these things under the rug, but rather let our emotions run free. Quasi-therapy.
I therefore find liberating the clear stance of Globetrotter Chairman of the Board of Directors, André Lüthi, who tweeted at the time, “Enough fear. When will our basic sense of trust in life finally return?” Or Kurt Aeschbacher, who said, “… that complaining doesn’t help, but taking action does.” The former moderator also said that creativity is only possible in personal encounters. Such points of view — perhaps far from the mainstream — give me courage. They allow me to look more calmly to a future that is uncertain for all of us.
I mean, sometimes we can and should get loud, lose our composure. Because particularly in these surreal times it is all the more valuable and refreshing when we communicate sincerely and authentically.