COMPARISON BETWEEN PRESENT AND PAST
It is evident that a drastic change in the way of life leads to a change in a person’s daily habits. And, because being in an unknown situation involves adaptation, we have changed and adapted our habits to the standards that the pandemic has forced us to. Planning weekends and trips outside the city, with these sudden changes regarding regional restrictions, is no longer as easy as it used to be. Going out with friends when you feel like it, to eat something together or to chat, has become a real undertaking. Even those who don’t love animals are thinking of getting a dog in anticipation of a second total lockdown.
WHERE IS THE DIFFERENCE
But what is the substantial difference between the first covid and the post covid? Every day life! Before there was certainty, now precariousness reigns. Our habit now is to have no habits, patterns, programs because everything can change at any moment. If before a small splinter affected our perfect daily balance by upsetting the routine, we would collapse like dominoes, stripped of all security. Now our only certainty is the indeterminacy of tomorrow and we don’t expect anything from it, we just hope that the next color our region will have will be yellow. On the other hand, this daily life perfectly reflects the disease we are facing: unknown, variable and unique.
LOST HABITS
There are so many things we have been forced to give up. The lack of people is, most likely, the one that creates the most despair. When we still didn’t know the difference between FP2, FP3, surgical masks and so on, we used to high-five our desk mate to congratulate us with a pass in math, or hug a friend of ours we haven’t seen for a long time. We would never have imagined that, overnight, we would no longer be able to interact with the people most dear to us. Another thing that “misses” (poetic license) is normality: the burraco match for the elderly, the soccer match on Sunday morning for the aspiring Messi, Sunday lunch at the grandmother’s, on Saturday evening with the friends, returning home after a busy day at work, sitting down at the table and telling what has been done to one’s mother. All these little things, today, seem distant from us, part of the past. Not all evil comes to harm, however, because, thanks to social distancing, hardly anyone dares to approach those who precede him in the post line. Indeed, thanks to this pandemic, we have become accustomed to being more civilized and more responsible.
CONCLUSIONS
As difficult and exasperating as it may be to live in this historical period, I have managed to find serenity. In a world that is chaos we can find peace and order only within ourselves; what better time than this? Now that you are alone with yourself ask yourself if everything you did before, all the habits and little obsessions you had contributed to making you a happy person.