I’d love to now, but Lord…
you know it sure does take a lot

Oct 2, 2019.

Today, on my way home from work, I got down at my Metro station and an old lady approaches me.

“Young man, could you help me carry these bags”

The bags looked heavy for her. I couldn’t help but think that she could be handing me something delicate law-wise, that’s being too paranoid, I know, but it wouldn’t be the first time here that someone gets handed a box or a bag trying to help someone else and they end up in jail.

But I wanted to feel good about myself, because most of the time that’s the reason we help others. Egos gotta be fed.

The old lady and I are on our way out of the station, I’m carrying the bags, and she says:

“Young man, let me give you an advice”

I nod politely and pay attention to what she’s going to share with me.

“You that are so young should follow the path of the Lord, because… because God is the only…”

Interrupt her. “I’m sorry, I can only help you this far. You’ll need to find someone else. Have a good day.”

What moves people to do that? To actively give advice to strangers. The thing about unsolicited advice is that it is, at least, condescending. Who gives the advisor the right to comment on a stranger’s choice? Isn’t the advisor also giving an insult by assuming they can add value to someone else’s life?

Left all alone, I’m with
The one I most fear

As we prepare to go back to normal after 2 months of forced isolation, people begin to share lessons learned during this time of fear and reflection. For us, the privileged, perhaps the biggest challenge was to cope with solitude, to face one’s thoughts. When the whole world stops, it’s like Adrian Borland says in the song, you really can’t escape yourself. And it’s not comfortable being only in the company of your own thoughts.

Having too much time for introspection didn’t teach me a lot, so not many lessons for a post-pandemic world will be coming from me, sorry. But I realized one thing: I could cease to exist and not a single life would be extremely affected by it. Yes, some people would miss me, some people would cry but there would be no big disruption in anybody’s life but mine.

At first I felt minuscule, irrelevant, unneeded and forgotten, in a feeling: lonely. That realization of loneliness hurt my ego. But I’ve come to understand that expecting something different is to be both delusional and undeservedly entitled. In most cases loneliness is a product of one’s actions. Living in a constant state of self-isolation, involuntary or not, leads to a life deprived of th joy of cultivating friendships.

Yawn #MatarifeLaSerie

I fear for the end.

I see a lot of people planning for “when this is over” and even though we don’t know when, there will be an end. I wonder if the world will return to “normal.”

“Normal” is not necessarily good with all the awful and important things that we never paid much attention to. But “normal” worked, at last I felt stable and content.

A virus is killing thousands all over the world, entire countries are in quarantine, families forced to spend time together, children locked in small houses… what are the psychological effects of this? If this extends for months how will it shape human behavior? What about the economy? It feels like in this country more people will die of hunger than because of the virus.

Everything has been disrupted. The bad thing about quarantine is not being locked, I enjoy that, is feeling stuck. Because everything and everyone had to be stopped. At times, it feels as if life as we know it has come to an end.

Bukowski was right. 9-to-5ers are the modern slaves.

The whole world is in chaos. Health systems collapsed, countries in shambles and “collective” isolation, in many cases imposed.

We’re told the situation is delicate, but we don’t have much time to think about it, we must go to bed early, we’ve got the morning shift.

This one caught us off guard. We flex about our place in the universe, our intellect and superiority in comparision with other beings is so vast we’re not even in the same level. Humans > Animal. But is it? We (they) are still trying to figure out this one out, they’re trying to find ways to cope with the current situation knowing it can only get worse. Thinking of a immediate solution seems delusional. Many have died and many more will die. How many of those deaths can be linked to the everlasting need for revenue? In many places companies won’t stop. All of the sudden jobs are essential, they won’t see it the same way when the discussion for a fair wage is re-started.

Large amounts of money in the pockets of a few over public health. Wealth over life. Same old story.

We’re the modern slaves. Escape it or embrace it.

Finalmente vi Sex Education de Netflix, básicamente es La rosa de Guadalupe con presupuesto.