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Online Materials
Tomos Roberts, “The Great Realization” (2020):
The Great Realization | Tomfoolery | A bed time story of how it started, and why hindsight’s (2020):
“ Let’s hope we are all transformed by this experience.”
Poet Tomfoolery Reflects On Diversity’s Recent Performance On BGT | Good Morning Britain (2020):
Further Reading
In this poem written and presented by Probably Tomfoolery on YouTube, a refreshing and inspiring take is presented on the current COVID-19 pandemic. Through his poetry, Probably Tomfoolery provides a different perspective on the many positive repercussions that the virus has made on society, and how it has in some way bettered the world.
I particularly liked this video because it was such a creative and meaningful assessment of everything that has happened with the coming of COVID-19, and it reminded me that there were truly so many things to be thankful for rather than feeling hopeless and fearful.
Probably Tomfoolery begins by providing a brief outline of what the world looked like prior to COVID-19. He says that we as a society were so obsessed with materialistic things, and the most important thing to us was attaining worldly goals. He states that families were disconnected, the environment was suffering, and we as humans were failing to do our part.
But with the virus, though it has led to much loss and disruption, many blessings have come. The halt in our previous lives gave room for growth and re-evaluation as a whole. We as a society have learned to make the most of each moment, to cherish time spent with family and friends, and to begin living in the moment.
I believe that this video is essential for us to realize how blessed we are, as well as how we should continue to live once this pandemic is over. God has created us each with special gifts and purposes, and this pandemic has definitely served to remind us of this truth.
“The halt in our previous lives gave room for growth and re-evaluation as a whole.” Have ever had to do self-evaluations either for a school project or for school? For me personally I am a little hesitant when filling out such forms and I assume some people my find it a little difficult. I don’t know why – but self-evaluations are intimidating. The irony is that through that intimidation, these self-evaluations truly reveal you strength and weaknesses in order to improve.
Sometimes, we dislike seeing our faults and failings and at times, we come up with excuses to justify them. However, it is within the moment that we sit down and self-evaluate are we able to truly discover our true self in order for us to improve. Valuscha, you are right – this pandemic has really been a chance for us and myself to re-evaluate my own life and slow down.
I know there are some families that have been affected by this pandemic, most of them financially – either they were temporarily laid off or just opened a new business just months before the pandemic hit. It is heartbreaking but, St. Paul reminds us in his first letter to the Thessalonians, “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thess 5:18). God wants us to all be happy, loving people because that is truly who God is, as “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) It is difficult to see that now, especially during these times but hopefully, by sitting down and re-evaluating our lives, we will be able to see how God works within our lives for nothing but love.
“We’d grown so used to bad news but some good news was in the making.”
Tomos Roberts offered such encouraging and uplifting images of the post-pandemic period. While many people (myself included) have found these to be times of “doom and gloom” which I think is reasonable considering the impact of this virus on the lives of people, infecting millions of people and hundreds of thousand of deaths, after watching Tomfoolery’s video, I was given a different perspective of this whole pandemic.
While COVID-19 is certainly something to be fearful about as it has caused much havoc to the lives of people all around the globe, it certainly gave the opportunity for people to take a break from the hustle-bustle of life. Living in Toronto and North America, life is always about the “go, go, go”. It seems like if you stop, you fall behind. Schedules and timelines must be kept, events to show up at, school to balance, work to attend to… but this time of pandemic allowed me and many to sit down and simply put life on hold.
I remember at the start of the year, I started outlining how 2020 was going to go and I was going to have an exciting and somewhat of a busy spring and summer once the Fall and Winter terms concluded. I was even looking forward to the liturgies of Holy Week until mid-March, everything just shut down and while I though this shut down was going to be quick, like a month or so but reading the news, I slowly came to understand that 2020 was going down the drain.
However, there was one night which I sat at my desk after doing some Zoom calls with some friends and at the end of it, I just felt a little sad. That all turned around as I looked at all the stuff on my desk – my memories with friends, my travels, the many gifts I received… I was honestly missing out on nothing.
“We’d grown used to bad news…” honestly true – I think the negativity if this COVID-19 really struck hard for people like myself but Tomfoolery’s video really reminded me of the “pros” of this pandemic. I was able to spend more time with family, with friends in virtually ways, had friendly critical conversations, spend more time with my youth group, started selling some stuff on eBay and even started cooking… all things I thought I was “too busy” for or kept making excuses for.
“…but some good news was in the making.” While my plans for the summer have been cancelled or postponed, #HopeIsNotCancelled. This pandemic has given the world the chance to stay put and reflect on what it really means to be “alive”. Life on earth is short, and one should spend every moment making the best of it in love for neighbour and service to God and his people. I hope people realize that from this time of pandemic. People are better when they take time to meditate and reflect on what life truly is – it is not the nice pictures on Instagram or the clickbait on Facebook. What matters most is our faith, our family, our friends, our people, our Mother Earth… things that form reality.
We will hopefully arise from this pandemic as more loving, caring, patient, and persevering members of society… at least that is what you and I pray for. Let’s just wait and see.
Vincent,
Great reflection! I definitely agree we live in such a fast-paced world that we often rarely ever had the time to sit and reflect about what we were really doing. I can definitely relate to finally having the time to pick up on hobbies that I would have made excuses for before due to a ‘lack of time’. I saw a social media post the other day that described a term called the “Coronacoaster” meaning, “the ups and downs of a pandemic”. This is something I definitely feel encapsulates my experience with quarantining because although some days feel great, at times that pang of sadness that you described can just hit you at any moment. This is why I feel it is important that we take this time to realize how blessed we are and to productively plan how we can express our gratitude in a way that is of service to others. Well done!
This resource may be my favourite one of all the Prophetic Voices because I personally felt moved in so many different ways while watching this video. I am by no means an avid poetry fan, nor do inspirational YouTube videos often speak to me – but this poetry clip had captivated me from the very beginning to the very end. In the start, it felt as if I was listening to a Dr. Seuss book and the overall concept gave me ‘The Lorax’ vibes. This is when I knew I would love the video. The beginning made me a bit sad, ashamed, and regretful, but the end gave me a strong sense of hope, relief, and joy. This piece was exceptionally well done for eloquently describing our pre-COVID, current COVID, and post-COVID worlds. I adore the way in which the author has a subtle whimsical tone in the poem as the story serves as a magical guise for children to learn of the realities lived in 2020. I think the theme of a great realization was absolutely ingenious and reminds me of the beginning of the pandemic when I would complain to my mother about quarantine dragging out for a long time. My mother responded for me to be patient and that this is a good thing, because God wants the world to sit at home and think of what we have done, what we have been doing, and what we will do. My mother is very adamant in the fact that God wants us to use this as a time to reflect and think and that “we still have a lot of thinking to do”.
Dania, I really enjoyed reading through your response! I think the point you made about this time being an opportunity sent to us from God is so true.
After watching the video, I had that same sense of remorse and guilt when the author discussed how we as a society functioned prior to COVID-19. It was especially disheartening for me to realize that I was guilty of many of the things that the poem touched upon.
I fully believe that COVID-19 has taught me so much about the importance of appreciating every “small” blessing in my day-to-day life, as well as having challenged me to reconsider how I plan to live after we can return to a more normal lifestyle.
In addition, I think that God has given us this time to really ponder how we have lived in the past and how He wishes for us to live in the future. The gift of life is so precious and sacred, and it is our duty to make the most of the time we have on Earth.
This is a really hopeful portrayal of the opportunities crises like this pandemic create for positive change in the world. I really believe in and encourage this angle on the pandemic. However, there is something amiss for me in this video.
Firstly, unfortunately many things described about the pre-covid modern world (e.g. plastic in the ocean; toddlers having smart phones; everything you could ever want being just a click away; a world marked by ‘poverty and plenty’; big, powerful and abusive multinational companies) are potentially gaining more ground in the pandemic, not less.
Secondly, while it is true that hindsight will teach us a lot about the problems of pre-pandemic society, it is not as if complaints about the things mentioned were not already present. We just weren’t willing or able to address them adequately.
As such, I’m not sure ‘realisation’ is the right word to describe the process we are all going through right now. Perhaps ‘The Great Opportunity’ would be a better phrase to describe the pandemic. We realised that things were wrong a lot time ago. But now, in the middle of such deep disruption of our sense of ‘normality’, we have a chance to change things.