Life after COVID
Or how we learned to value small goals, small communities and small things
It’s been months here in Italy since COVID-19 stroke for the very first time in Codogno (LO). My first memory about it was reading the news on my phone: “Lombardy is currently in total lockdown due to Coronavirus outbreak”. Such a news title sounded so Hollywood that nobody embraced at first the idea that situation was pretty scary. Later we would have learned a hard lesson followed by many other countries around the globe still fighting something willing to stay.
Living far from COVID red zones gave me and the people I care about the chance to go through lockdown with enough calm and readiness. Families around here had the time to worry and learn new habits never practiced before. We had our numbers but they were small and real danger never felt too close. But every single italian, all over the country, soon realized that everything was suddenly changing forever. We couldn’t afford to let the virus spread. Not just because it was simply dangerous, but mostly because our flawed (but free) healthcare system could not sustain the effort. There were two or three days back in March when news anchors kept saying that the increasing contagion rate would have led medical staffs to decide who lived and who died. It was the scariest moment of all, at least for me.
While the virus was spreading, new ideas and awareness were too. Kids staying home forced (or granted) parents to really focus on them. Remote work became ordinary where only one week before lockdown it was considered impossible because of a creepy old italian mentality and prejudice. Hard workers and good parents emerged. Government did its best choosing caution and economic damage over inevitable and uncountable deaths. Unluckily it was not enough since not every one of us can work from home while keeping a shop open or machinery running.
So here we are along with the hard truth we learned. The civilized world, as it was before all this, cannot stop for any reason. We suddenly realized we are travelling on a crazy-fast sport car on a neverending financial highway. Some decided to slow down, others to keep going. Either way, we all got serious damage we’re still trying to comprehend.
Do we still want to run so fast? Is it worth?
Technology and progress taught us the top is never too far if you have enough brain and money. But if the top keeps getting higher any facilitation becomes futile and inequality remains. What if we change our goals? First of all: do we all need to live in huge, polluted, overpopulated cities? Bus drivers need to drive buses and factory workers need to shape things, but what about all the others? Driving their smoky cars to offices they don’t really need, or at least they do not need everyday. Just try to imagine a world where people and demography can be planned in harmony with geography and the ecosystem. Where nature can go back to be a hundred years younger, or even more. Where small communities have small problems. Where small things are the greatest wealth.
The dead must be honored. Most of them were old-aged and we missed all their stories about the past, when life was harder just like it has been lately. COVID brutally prevented their voice to be heard from those struggling to save them. Or just to say goodbye.
We must take this opportunity to remember what we lost, finding something new.
Something better.
