Struggling with COVID

Costs and benefits of an ongoing season.

The season we live in presents us with a variety of questions for which a surplus of awareness is needed in order not to lose the appropriate answers. Let's take (for the… hair) an issue that is not at all negligible. The lock-downs, the orange and red zones, the Dpcm, the precautionary measures… have marked us, in particular for what they have limited and restricted. There have been heavy economic implications, for interrupted activities, for impractical situations, for blocked operations ... On this front there are really problematic implications, for many who have found themselves almost collapsed due to their work above all. And, in this regard, there have been deadly repercussions on the family budget, to the point of generating an enormously increased band of "new poverty". In which it is perceived as lacerating to have found oneself almost suddenly "without what is necessary". And the impact with one's own illness or that of others (in the family and not only) has led to measure oneself with "being without health" or "being touched by death", in an intertwining of thoughts that are also harsh inside, as well as painful and arduous.

Then there is the whole chapter of the school, closed in too many prolonged moments, with everything that has been subtracted for not being the protagonists of face-to-face lessons. An important piece of life that has passed away. Generations struggling with new technologies (where they work), but also with the absence of being together, of finding each other, of socializing ... all vital opportunities to grow in humanity. How many colorful and intriguing protests of the boys, on this ground! How much clear-cut urgency to be alive "with" others and not "without" others! How much desire for concrete reality and how much overdose of virtual connections! In short, the pandemic has taken us away and is taking us away a lot. We know it. In the home there is evidence of family and adolescent situations that collapse. Psychologists notice complications of various kinds, on several levels. And they launch alarms that should not be underestimated.

But the assorted lock-down that affects us has also meant ending up "without" ... something superfluous, exaggerated, excessive, too much, trivial, unnecessary, taken for granted, not always owed ...

Each of us can perhaps rethink our days - in time of "red" or "orange" in particular - to find out what has been missing but which we have been able to do without, making up for it with a further level of humanity, of attention, service, thoughtfulness ... We were less distracted on many negligible occasions and we were more committed to something different, substantial, sensitive to the good ... First of all, good health, for which to make sacrifices. And yes, because you can enrich yourself with dignity even without things that are not indispensable, thinking about this is necessary. "Without" is not only a decrease that penalizes, it can also help to multiply the good. The pandemic does cause gaps, but they are not all empty to lose. Paradoxically.

NP Aprile 2021

Corrado Avagnina