During a virtual gathering these days, some friends were discussing something one tries to convey to Europeans as a South American. Living in the civilized world gives a false sense of security. Planning, guarantees and rights are undoubtedly great achievements, but the great fiction is solid ground. The truth is that no one has anything guaranteed.
Wellbeing and progress are the desires every country should have for its citizens, but they can place us in a less suitable spot to improvise, to overcome exceptional situations like the ones we’re living through. Living in the first or second world can make us forget that nature holds the baton in this concert. In other latitudes, on the other hand, it always surpasses us; perhaps too often.
If this situation is to bring us any cure, it’s humility. No nationality, profession or person is exempt from having their turn. Rich and poor alike mourn their dead. We must furl the sails and return to our basic state of humans, period. To truly make the word an adjective, even a verb that already exists: to humanize ourselves.
There are things beyond us. Accepting that puts the intangible soul, the spirit, the strength that helps us overcome and can help us most, to work. But it must be cultivated, that vital force pulled from its hiding places.
This is not the time to look for blame. That too must be learned in these days. This has happened as many tragedies happen, sown by stupidity, which has proven more dangerous than malice.
It’s the moment to vibrate at the same frequency, all of us. There will be time for responsibility, and the first thing is to take on one’s own. We’ve all committed imprudences before being forced to shelter in place. But no one wanted to get infected, and that is the greatest common denominator, the number that divides without leaving any remainder.
That sense of immunity we felt toward others’ misfortune has ended up becoming the clearest proof of our weakness. Which led us to underestimate what was already happening in other latitudes.
Paradoxically, the sooner we realize how vulnerable we all are, the sooner we’ll be stronger. Surrendering doesn’t mean giving up the fight; it means lowering our heads to raise them better, with a greater degree of awareness.
We are little papers carried by the wind, drops of water in the immense ocean. Far from distressing us, this thought should give us strength, comfort so we don’t suffer uselessly. We are drops, but we are many drops and we create tides and waves. We must feel with every fiber that we are equal, that we feel the same in different languages.
The battle to win is that of good energies, those that create thoughts that walk in the same direction toward what has walked us through history on this planet where we are recent guests: our capacity to adapt and keep fighting until our last breath.
We must place ourselves where the light reaches us. Perfume our soul and put on cream, even though right now, having wrinkles doesn’t seem like such a bad prospect.
Verónica van Kesteren
Illustration: Ignacio Hildebrandt