I type this while I swing both feet down my balcony’s rails. Truth is, I had never sat like this before, and I don’t know if I should feel like a bird locked up in a pretty cage, or like a kid riding down a roller coaster. I’ve been observing the ivy climb up and take over the house right across the street very closely from March 14th - the day when the state of alarm was declared - up until today, April 14th. It has bloomed with spring, like an explosion, as pretty as the ends of a fireworks show - from dark brown, dusty, and dry, to bright green, alive and cheerful. It now dances with the wind and holds tiny little paws of chirping birds of all kinds. It gives me hope.
Earlier in January a deadly virus named SARS-CoV-2 started taking away the lives of thousands of people in Wuhan, China. I think we can all agree, or at least us the inhabitants of the Western countries, that the news came as that of a tsunami taking place in the Indian coast. A colossal wave millions of miles away, which seemed unreachable to us.
Today, I’m reminded of the Chaos Theory - it proves that when a butterfly flaps its wings in China it can cause a hurricane in Texas. And so the Coronavirus knocked on our doors. The waters of the tsunami started dripping underneath our front gates.
Covid-19 has taken away from us what we thought was banal. It unhugs you. It leaves you unkissed. It shields your mouth. It locks you in. It isolates you. It covers your bed sheets in fear. And if it chooses to be brutal, it takes your oxygen, and even your life away. As of today, it has already ended with the lives of 18,000 people in Spain. So many of us have or will, unfortunately, lose some of our loved ones.
But one thing remains true for all - despite all this, there's some kind of beauty in that we’re all in it together and, regardless of the physical distance that sets us apart, we all share the same feeling and that, at least to me, makes me feel accompanied. We are all one. As a Vedanta philosopher stated a century ago “the Self is the essence of this universe, the essence of all souls… Happiness belongs to him who knows this oneness, who knows he is one with this universe.”
I wonder if this is somewhat of a new Ice Age era? Turns out life has frozen up on us. Someone must have pressed the pause button. The streets are empty, shops are closed, production has stopped, planes no longer fly, … an unseen whole world put down. And what is in it for us? Here are some of my reflections:
Earlier I’ve spoken as though I’ve experienced a tsunami myself, but I never have. However, there are those who indeed have had to run away from natural catastrophes, or from deadly and bloody wars. There are millions who flee their countries daily, jumping into oceans to avoid being raped, tortured, or starved to death.
And yet I’ve seen people, with my own eyes, run away from the metropolis and mainly COVID-19 infected areas to their vacation homes. I’ve seen others’ greediness by filling up their homes with endless supplies - that including toilette paper, ridiculous amounts of it - only to look out for themselves and wipe their own asses. Yes, to all of you - never again look down on people who flee from war and famine. Don’t you dare build walls or draw borders for those who run away from life threatening situations. Can you relate now?
I’ve stopped watching TV. The ivy show deserves my watch more than the news I will hear do. Talks about the economies, production lines, oil&gas prices plummeting, stock markets crashing, the “we need to get back to normal to save the economy”...; well, what if your so-called “normal” was the problem from the very beginning?
No, I don’t care about your PIBs, GDPs, and other damn indexes that tell me how much moneys are in your bottomless pockets.
No, I don’t want to go back to your Planet Earth drills, to your usurping of raw materials and mass production in undeveloped countries as if there was no tomorrow.
No, I don’t want to see your stupidly non-recyclable plastics that wrap up you products being shipped to 3rd world countries. Nor do I want it in my oceans!
No, I don’t need your Zara store to reopen so that you can sell me a bunch of dumb jeans produced in mass lines in India. A pair of jeans you’re making me want to purchase and which I don’t need at all.
No, I don’t care about your affected meat industry, I don’t want to see any more extensive farms with animals in pain and suffering in it, contributing to the green gas effects that are causing the temperature of our planet to rise and an irreversible climate change.
No, I don’t want to continue seeing animal’s fleshes devoured by your delicate mouths. How many more viruses and epidemics do we need to go through for you to realize it is NOT ok to eat animals? Mad cow disease, Swine flu, Bird flu, Ebola, SARS, COVID-19, … just to name a few.
Yes, you, mens with hats and suitcases, mens with powers who control our world in G7s, city councils, and parliaments, printing moneys so that the economy gets back on. Your hats deserve more seats at my table than you all do. Moneys that you choose to print and print at your own will, stating that they “will save our economy”. Whose economy? Yours? Because it for sure isn’t saving mine, who will end up paying back all the made-up newly-printed money! Let’s just agree that your foolish capitalist system is corrupt, benefits only a few, and is based upon lies and made up of promises that will never come true. As my most favorite Henry David Thoreau put it: “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.”. And you, can you live with less?
Our planet’s lungs needed to breathe. Trees needed to stop being cut down. People hated more than loved. The rich thought they could purchase happiness. The football player was more successful than the medical staff. Borders prevented others from coming into our countries.
Turns out life changes in the blink of an eye. Now we know, a tsunami may come anytime and we're all on the same sinking boat. Resilience. They say happiness is our ability to adapt to change and see greatness in it. From March 14th and on, we’ve been clapping at the real heroes. We’ve stayed home. We’ve started to appreciate our ability to breath. We’ve listened in. More deeply. We’ve learnt to share space with loneliness. Some of us have made peace with our shadows. We’ve found richness in nothingness. We’ve understood the interconnectedness of our planet - when we harm nature, we harm ourselves.
Fear of death will remain. Yes, one day we will all die. True that. But the others we won’t. And what we make out of the days we’re on this planet, will echo in eternity.
From now on, you’ll find me swinging both feet down my balcony, staring at the ivy throughout the seasons, and 8 PM will be the time when I will forever be getting goosebumps.
gracieabrams
blakekathryn