This year’s wildflower pilgrimage.

I don’t mean to make it sound like the virus has suddenly appeared out of nowhere. We’ve been watching it come, almost in slow motion, our faces glued to coverage of the response in Wuhan, and then across China, and then in Italy. But applying it to our own lives has happened quite overnight.

We always talk about how change-averse we humans are, but look how quickly we are adapting! The most remarkable thing is, no matter how quickly and comprehensively our lives change, our brains go right along with the program! What was normal becomes weird; the weird becomes normal.

I look outside and see two people on the sidewalk, moving toward one another. Would it be bizarre if they hugged hello? Last month, no. Today, contrary to a lifetime of social conditioning, such a thing would be impossible!

Listen to this: today the NBA announced it would suspend its season. A week ago that would not have appeared on a multiple-choice list of things that could conceivably happen. In retrospect it seems wholly logical and that to do otherwise would be strange.

In a week’s time there may be no sports at all. For the first time in our lives. No concerts, no political rallies. The horse race of politics, arguably the biggest game going right now — something that has occupied a huge portion of our collective prefrontal cortex for quite a while — that too could be radically transformed.

Rush hour, La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles.

Turns out we humans are very, very good at adapting. We are elastic, flexible, resourceful. We’ll see how well it goes in practice, but one thing we are learning now for sure: we can adapt.

Once we see what is possible — who knows — maybe we can leverage some of the creativity and ingenuity that will come to what we’re going to have to do in the face of, for instance, sea-level rise, or shifts in agriculture due to drought or temperature variation?

Or, is clear and present necessity the only mother of invention?