Responding to The Coronation: Further Thought on Charles Eisenstein’s Essay Amidst Covid-19

In early April 2020 I saw Charles Eisenstein’s essay The Coronation circulating online amongst friends. At that time, I was recovering from having symptoms that had knocked me out for a week. Reading a 9000-word essay seemed a lofty task at the time. I read some of it and in the coming weeks listening to Charles share about it on various podcasts.

I’ve already been a fan of Charles’ work and his perspective. I found the perspectives shared to be refreshing and soothing. At the time, so many of the messages being shared online were fear-based. One had to seek out other perspectives than the pervasive narrative shared by mainstream media.

Now that 2020 is coming to a close, I thought it would be beneficial to revisit The Coronation essay again. We’re 8 months from when the pandemic became a concrete concern for many of the people in the US, and we have more perspective in general. With that, I’d like to reflect further on the perspectives Charles shared.

Here are some excerpts from the essay and my thoughts that coincide:

“Covid-19 is like a rehab intervention that breaks the addictive hold of normality. To interrupt a habit is to make it visible; it is to turn it from a compulsion to a choice.”

“When the crisis subsides, we might have occasion to ask whether we want to return to normal, or whether there might be something we’ve seen during this break in the…