Her essay describing how the virus had shut down the town was titled "Corona...I hate you!" Which considering how tough things have been there is pretty much what I'd expect. I think by now we all have experienced a lot of visceral anger at this not-even-quite-living thing that is robbing us of our lives, in tens of thousands of cases quite literally.
So I was surprised when I opened my email one morning and found she'd sent a new piece of writing titled, "Corona I love you." Of course Franca doesn't really love the virus (unlike some U.S. Republicans, who seem positively gleeful that it will clear out the old, the weak, and the non-white). But she has found a few things to be grateful for, which strikes me as very healthy.
With her permission I want to quote some of what she wrote. (I've made a few small grammatical corrections.)
"Yes, this seems to be a silly affirmation, but [this situation] has so many positive sides. I obviously am speaking about life in Emilia-Romagna, the region where I live, but I think that more or less you can extend my outlook to other places in Italy, or in the world.
"First of all, the sky is blue. You may think that it is an obvious thing, but it isn’t. Here we usually always have a gray-blue sky, because of the nearby great highway that connects the North with the South, and the industries, and the thousands of cars that everybody uses in our overpopulated zone.
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| I think this was more fog than pollution, but the sky was sort of gray-blue. |
"Now the sun, the moon and the stars shine like never before!
"You can sniff the air and it smells good; it's like the air in the mountains, scented with flowers and grass. Before we had one flat smell of …...nothing!
"What about the silence?
"l am a fan of deserts. When will I have another occasion to stay at home and have the same kind of silence? No cars, no planes, no people in the streets, very few trains...there is only the sound of the birds in the trees or in the sky!
"There is no stress. This is like the life of about 40 years ago; you have things to do, but with a relaxed rhythm. We are not in a hurry for anything....
"Before we had no time, no time for anything. Everyone was in a hurry and always more, and more, and more. Our life was full of work, meetings, courses, shopping, false desires and false necessities. Now everything has gotten more simple. More natural. More quiet.
"And if Mr Corona is giving us a suggestion, perhaps it is: 'Take it easy and enjoy this, your one and only life.'"
Now of course neither Franca nor I think that quiet and blue skies make up for the deaths and all the other losses this pandemic has inflicted on Italy and the rest of the world. There is no ignoring the tragedy of it. But I think most of us are finding little things to be grateful for as well in this sudden stoppage of the everyday--things we should appreciate while they last and that perhaps we will miss when the crisis is over and normal life roars back again.
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