First of all, I would like to thank @theycallmedan for this initiative that allows us to express the anguish and the dangers we are living in this sui generis situation that all humanity is going through with the spread of the pandemic caused by the coronavirus COVID-19.
There are really many things to be said about this tragic situation, which overnight has changed our daily habits, expectations, short, medium and long term projects, diet, freedom of movement, free will, personal and social relations; it has altered our daily routine, it has changed the very lives of all the inhabitants of this planet which is now in forced quarantine.
On April 4, I made a post entitled El jefe Seattle, la naturaleza y el coronavirus and on that occasion I cited the RTVE.es page World Map of the Coronavirus, which indicated that there were one million people infected and more than 52,000 deaths in the world. Today, barely eight days later, that same page reports that there are now more than 1,700,000 people infected and more than 109,000 human beings have succumbed to the virus worldwide; in other words, in barely eight days the number of deaths has doubled and the number of exterminations continues to rise dramatically.
This situation makes the threat of expansion even more serious because it has reached countries with fragile health systems such as Ecuador, where to date around three hundred people have died (according to the world map of the coronavirus) from this pandemic, with Dantesque images of corpses decomposing in the sun on the streets of Guayaquil, or as in my country, Venezuela, where the totalitarian government that we have suffered for more than twenty years has submerged us in an acute political, social, moral and economic crisis, considered the most serious in our entire history as a republic.
To express how this quarantine situation with COVID-19 is affecting me, I will say that I am an older adult, retired, with a monthly salary that, at the exchange rate in bolivars, does not even reach three dollars ($3) and with that plus the similar salary of my wife, also retired, we have to do miracles, magic and maromas to buy the basic foods to keep our bodies and spirits healthy. With that we could only buy a carton of eggs, two kilos of rice and a litre of edible oil. From this information we can infer everything else.
What will you do when COVID 19 is over?
1
Honestly, I do not see a solution to this catastrophe in the short or medium term. However, I am certain that, eventually, humanity will also come out of this trance.
Of course I want this to end soon, like everyone else, and the first thing I will do when the COVID-19 coronavirus is over is the same thing I do every day: give THANKS. First of all I will express my GRATITUDE to the most important being in my life, that especially wonderful being that is with me in every moment, in every breath, that luminous being that encourages me with his company and that keeps me up, that takes care of me with his love and his omnipresence. I will give THANK YOU to life for your incredible tenacity to overcome the extreme situations that we, the human race, infringe upon from time to time. I will give THANK YOU to my family, my friends and neighbors who despite all the problems of communication have always found a way to be close to support each other by showing that we care about the fate of others as much as we do about our own skin. I will toast with her and give THANK YOU to life. I will embrace her, I will kiss her, without fear, without gloves or masks.
2
The second thing I would do, if I had the necessary material resources, would be to go with my wife to a beautiful beach of the many that abound in the geography of Sucre State, to enjoy the benefits of the sea and the sun, to walk barefoot along the shore where the waves arrive with the message of eternal return, to feel the salty breeze on the body, to feel the sand as a therapeutic massage pricking the skin and to breathe the immensity of the blue that the sea and the sky share. To enter the ocean to purify my blood with the blood of the Earth. To take a good dip to shake off the scales that have caused my quarantine and float in the water, to close my eyes, to feel an integral part of the great miracle that is the universe.
[Foto propia]
3
The third thing would be to meet with the group Pura gente bonita, unconditional friends who I have joined, for several years, with a great affinity in many aspects, both materially and spiritually. This group of friends, poets, storytellers, film and photography lovers, wine lovers, sybarites, epicurean men, sensual women, was created precisely to share our joys and sorrows, our literary experiences, to watch films, to talk about the political situation in Venezuela and the events happening in the world. I would be very happy if I could soon embrace this gang of dreamers. To listen to music of various genres while we prepare a fish stew, a macaroni, a paella or a session of making bread tinged with a few glasses of wine or of the very cold beers that we owe each other since the last months of last year. Work with them in dialogues about their personal and family experiences in relation to the quarantine; talk about the tenacity of life that, in spite of everything, always manages to find a ray of light where to get up to continue building a future.
[Foto propia]
In conclusion, I would like to express my gratitude to all the people who in this quarantine have embellished their gardens and patios, have dusted off their notebooks, have opened their books, have written letters, stories, poems, have painted with their brothers, have played with their children, have listened to music and danced in these difficult days in order to collaborate with their grain of sand to cut the chain of transmission of this terrible evil.
Thank you, HUMANITY, for taking care of our only home.
The last two images are my property.
Taken with a Samsung phone,
model Ace2 GT-I8160P
Gracias por leer
Note: The translation has been made through DeepL
¡¡¡Felicidades!!!