Breaking the Pyramid: How COVID-19 is redefining our worldly needs.

If youd have asked me at the start of the year to name my 2020 wish-list, I would have struggled. Chances are my attention would have been split between some of the most in-demand products on the market. For a little while before Christmas I had been eyeing up a set of those top-end noise-cancelling over-the-ear headphones (you know the ones that dont start strangling you when you stand up to get off the bus), and I wouldnt have said no to one of those new Fitbit fitness trackers (it might have encouraged me to actually get my lazy hide off the sofa come January).

My number one crush of 2019 was an Ember Temperature Control Coffee Mug, in limited edition Copper. In fact, I read on the manufacturers website that its a work at home essential.Fast-forward to the last week of March 2020 and I am working at home, but I mourn not the bronze cup of heavenly goodness that coulda kept my coffee warm, or the dappa cans that coulda kept my ears warm, or the little tracker that coulda kept my ticker warm.

No. I have spent the past 7 days savagely hunting down tinned goods and cartons of soya milk. And at this point Id probably risk my right hand for a loaf of bread.

The only way my wife and I have any bog roll in the house is via the underground trading network we have established with our well-connected next door neighbour. Yet, who knew that the whole world would go all Dexter on us in a little under three months? Just the other day Aldi was full of frenzied mothers wearing ventilation masks and latex gloves, whilst wrestling bottles of disinfectant from each other.

Those soldiers of the shop floor the ravaged and bewildered retail assistants looked a PTSD kind of broken; left slumped and defeated in the wake of capitalisms greatest carnage. All hail the return of Primordial man.So, what the hell happened?

That was exactly what Jared Leto (above) said after returning to the civilised world following a 12-day retreat and a prolonged period of isolation in the desert. Leto had no idea that the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak had swept the globe, having left his mobile devices behind to focus on his meditation practice. He was shocked, to say the least, upon realising the world he was walking back into barely resembled the one he had left behind only a few weeks beforehand.

Yet one man saw it coming a long, long time ago and built a pyramid in its name. Abraham Maslow was a 20th-century American Psychologist who was best known in academic circles for proposing a theory called Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow outlined five hierarchical levels required for human growth with a persons physiological and safety needs providing the foundation that must be fulfilled before any higher stages (e.

g. love / belonging, esteem and self-actualisation) of development can be acquired. The model makes a great deal of sense, as an individual surely cannot express the most evolved aspects of their being such as creativity and a desire for further learning if their sense of security is under threat.

Just a day or two ago an updated version of Maslows hierarchy (pictured below) appeared on my Twitter feed, and it immediately caught my attention.This image got me thinking about what it is exactly that has sent planet earth into meltdown within a very short space of time. It made me realise that without toilet roll we are all basically (pardon the pun) in the crapper.

Accepting that COVID-19 is a horrible, horrible contagion a global pandemic that has caused much suffering for a small percentage of the worlds population is only one piece of the puzzle. There can be no dispute that, for a significant number of poor souls, this vicious bat-inflected flu from Wuhan has had tragic outcomes. Yet the wave of sheer panic and terror that has rippled out across continents is not proportionate not even in the slightest to the level of risk posed to its habitants.

And this will be the legacy that COVID-19 leaves behind. Not since a major world war have ration books been the source of every conversation from Glasgow to Gravesend. In essence, this nasty virus has assaulted every single one of our primary needs; our food supply (panic-buying at the supermarket), our financial security (devastating reduction in income), our personal safety (anyone got mugged for their milk lately?

), our sense of health & wellbeing (impending illness or fear of), our air supply (my mother tells me that its airborne bacterias can live for up to three hours), and our sleep (if youre anything like my wife you will have lost a wink or two worrying about ASDAs rapidly diminishing pet food aisle). You can check the list above against Maslows hierarchy. COVID-19 has attacked our physical needs from every angle.

And with the loss of those physiological essentials comes the sacrificial lamb in the form of our social and emotional requirements. Communities cut-off. Cafes closed-down.

Restaurants relinquished. Festivals frozen. Elbows bumping.

Virtual hugging.The toll that social distancing for a prolonged period of time will take on any individuals mental health is impossible to predict at this stage and the impact will no doubt vary depending on the person and their unique situation. My beautiful and wildly misunderstood wife Samantha has been self-isolating for most of her adult life.

She is a true pro (Bear Grylls has got nothing on ma baby) who has always valued the company of our pet furries above the two-legged anthropoid kind. But many people are gregarious souls, who thrive and depend on rubbing feathers with their flock. For some, the closure of the pub down the road could start a downward spiral into depression, as their only daily point of contact comes via a pint and a natter.

Maslows pyramid hasnt just taken a hit here the entire structure is caving in. And for now, all we can do is watch.Sam and I gasped in amazement at ALDI the other afternoon stranded somewhere between the bereft dried food shelves and the grief-stricken fruit and veg section upon hearing a dialogue coming from a middle-aged couple.

They were wielding a trolley over-spilling with freshly-grabbed goods. Weve got enough, lets go the woman said, to which her husband replied No, dammit! We need more!

. If ever there was a slogan for the human race that was it right there and then. The COVID-19 pandemic is another wake-up call.

Do I really require that 200 coffee mug in order to truly appreciate my favourite caffeinated beverage? Do I absolutely have to purchase that 100 Fitbit tracker gadget to get my ass into gear? What happiness can I genuinely gain from a set of 150 bluetooth headphones?

These are some of the questions I should be asking myself at a time when Id trade anything for a bit of loo roll and a loaf of fresh bread. This virus is teaching us that we need very little to live comfortably, and that if were totally honest we dont have to spend our lives as slaves to consumerism. In the words of His Holiness the Dalai Lama:We buy things we dont need with money we dont have to impress people we dont like.

We have seen how, over the past few weeks, COVID-19 has brought out the worst of humanity. The purging of innocent animals in China. The media circus.

The stockpilers. The profiteers. The rugby tackling of pensioners to get to the frozen veg.

But bad times bring out the best in people too. Teenagers shopping for old ladies. Food parcels for those on benefits.

Giving the lonely old bloke at the checkouts your only loaf of bread. The postcard scheme. Online clubs.

A famous footballer giving up his hotel for the NHS. And for some personal change. From now on I will savour the decadence of simply lying in bed with Sam and our four cats on a Saturday morning, enveloped in a blanket of furry love and comfort.

I will say thank you out loud for my own good health and the wellbeing of my family. I will call my folks more often to tell them I love them, and to see if they need anything. I will enjoy a latte at Gather my local coffee house, appreciating with each frothy sip the importance of community.

I will endeavour to whinge less about my teaching job it serves a purpose greater than my own. Only now that the college has shut down do I truly realise how essential it is to help people learn and grow. And it pays the bills for us.

When Im having a shit day at the office entangled in targets and deadlines I will try to remember the freelancers and small business owners who are now struggling to keep a roof over their heads. I will spend more time in the garden with Sam planting seeds, pruning the trees and weeding the beds. I will bask in the summer sun as it strokes my face.

Such simple pleasures. Too soon forgotten.