The COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to stark contrasts and reversals. The mass encounter with impermanence and loss of life went hand in hand with an appreciation of life and the importance of loved ones, now separated by lockdown restrictions, even at the moment of death. Images of overflowing hospitals and mortuaries were juxtaposed with protestors demanding the freedom to ignore restrictions necessary to defeat the virus, including the wearing of facemasks. With the US elections in 2020, the outgoing president spoke of having made America great again while claiming that the election had been stolen; the incoming president spoke of grief and the importance of compassion and the need for unity, not only at home but abroad. The new year saw a largely white and male mob, incited by a Trump rally, storm the US Capitol Building, threatening senators and representatives, desecrating its premises and leaving six dead, while threatening a new civil war. The small number of police contrasted starkly with their strong presence during the earlier Black Lives Matter protests in Washington DC, once again highlighting racial inequality in America. The stark contrasts were also evident in the environment. On the one hand, fires raged in California and Australia and hurricanes in the US, Caribbean and Pacific, among others. Populations were faced with the task of both protecting or escaping their homes and fending off disease. On the other hand, the global lockdown due to the pandemic brought an emptiness and calm to the experience of nature, as well as a greater ability to breathe.

The previous snapshot explored the inseparability of emptiness of mind and action for the Buddhist warrior, a concept that would appear to be a contradiction in terms. A similar problem is at the heart of this snapshot, but we reposition the apparatus slightly to zoom out to the larger environment, both as context and natural phenomenon, to gain some understanding of the stark contrasts and reversals that characterized the pandemic.