Pretty soon, it will be the end of the year. Hopefully not the end of the world. I don’t know whether to continue hiding under my red blanket or shout “Hallelujah” to welcome year 2021. Will the world be safer by then? Could we ever return to the old normal? Will the dreaded “unspeakable” continue to keep the world hostage with shelter at home orders or early curfews? I definitely have second thoughts on that.
Most people I know would choose to stay home and be safe. I hardly see my Monday Club friends of 17 years anymore. But hey, if one has no work (unless you work online), there is no money to buy groceries, pay the help, pay the rent… so what must we do?
In my case, because I need to eat to survive, I will take the risk and report to work as before. I have no choice but for it to be “business as usual” though taking all precautions to avoid being infected.
But what if, God forbid, the company I’m working for has to close down because business is poor or has simply grounded to a halt? Will I end up begging? Or perhaps solely depend on dole out the government? Worse, will I join the ranks of the homeless? Ugh! No way, Lucy! Thoughts too scary to think about!
Everyone has stories to tell about their “unspeakable” experience. For me, there are two faces to this unparalleled situation. On one side, if the “unspeakable” were an entity, it would have been thrashed and bludgeoned to death for single-handedly causing the demise of dear ones all over the world.
It would have been trampled by the shoes, flyswatters and “tsinelas” of an unforgiving multitude for changing the norms that we have known and loved, for crippling our businesses, and for transforming even the way education is delivered to our young and old ones.
But wait a minute! On the other side, did not the emergence of that “unspeakable” also change the way we treat one another? Because we are now forced to stay at home, we have no choice but to speak to and enjoy each other’s company (however excruciating that maybe). And goodness! I have never seen such proliferation of culinary geniuses, with even the men trying their hands at cooking. Isn’t that amazing?
Why, there has also been a resurgence of garden warriors – of “plantitos” and “plantitas”. Small entrepreneurs, too, are on the rise, with enterprising individuals sweating it out in grilling chicken or pork inasal, like my nephew Lemuel, or vending online the yummiest valenciana and suman with DJ Stanley Jordan delivering these delicacies right to your doorstep.
Have you guys tried this one of a kind quiche – a European foodie that only my dear friend Ging D’Rasa can whip up now that she has all the time to bake? Oh, and I was glad to finally find the fresh carabao’s milk of my childhood being sold in bottles. How else would I have discovered these things if, like before, I was preoccupied with other stuff?
What I am saying is that this “unspeakable” has brought out the very best in people that you would have not seen otherwise, had these been normal times. Would we go back to being the self-centered, me first, never-mind-the-others, person we were before?
When this is all over, will we begin as new role models equipped with discerning and true understanding of the world and the people who make up the world around us? – NWI
