Dear Yuri,
As a young girl, I wanted to be an astronaut to see how the earth could be still. Well, I now have a glimpse of it. What’s ironic is that my house is as noisy as ever whereas my neighbourhood went silent. In order to understand this, you have to visualise a young boy with Tourette’s Syndrome. He is extremely stressed; when does school starts again ? When will the pandemic be over? Will he get the virus? His way to cope with all those uncertainties is to shout and to slam doors.
You also need to visualise his mom. A woman who’s trying her best to help him but who’s deeply affected by her son’s erratic behaviour. Despite being absent, the father’s presence is haunting the household. Tonight, tomorrow maybe, he’ll come back and there will be even more shouts.
The last member of the family is the daughter. Next year, she will be gone, lost in the bowels of a gigantic city amongst thousands of people. Sometimes, she looks out from her window wondering if « next year » will come. She relieves her stress by gazing at the forest next to her house. Everything looks calm over there…
No matter how hard lockdown is for this family, they are still happy to spend a little time together. As billions of people out there, they are doing their part. Nothing is perfect but they try their best to tolerate one another.
So, Yuri, while in lockdown, I suggest that we take time to really talk to our loved ones. Being locked down is a hard time. Take time for yourself, look out from the window and if you are able to, spend time with your family. There’s a lot to discover.