Foto: Sven Menschel Tekst: Donatella Gasparro
There are lots of things Resource blogger Donatella Gasparro could write about these days, she says. She really struggled to choose one. Thus she decided to give you a list of items and topics she considered commenting on, without actually doing it. Here we go:
1. I could write about how after only two weeks of online meetings, lessons, events, gatherings, yoga and dance classes, I had enough of zoom, Microsoft teams, bongo, skype, all online meeting platforms and computer screens;
2. I could also write about the fact that I graduate this Monday – which is today, maybe right now while you’re reading this – and how, as for all those graduating these days or in the future couple of months, this is so anticlimactic, boring, unceremonious and funny, but for sure makes for an interesting story to tell our future grandkids: “In corona times your grandma graduated in slippers”;
3. I could comment on Idealis’ brilliant email that was sent to all students last week and how they suggest avoiding to shower every day to save money and ‘to pass corona onto’ them if we have it in our student house;
4. Or on how even in the happy Droevendaal bubble the semi-quarantine is driving us a little bit insane, and all the weird things that six people living together 24/7 come up with, from kitchen experiments to garden gnomes running around on skateboards;
5. I could also write, at length, about the funny measures adopted by some shops. One can only enter with a cart to distance oneself from others – with amaximum of two people per cart. – And personnel is not wearing any mask or gloves at allr. And, by the way, you’d need four carts around you to actually distance from people from all angles;
6. I could happily talk about flowers, buds, leaves and bumblebees – and spring which happens anyway, explodeing right there, right now, fully unaffected and unimpressed by humanity and its peculiar dramas;
7. I could make a sub-list of words and expressions we’ve used in the past weeks more than ever, such as pandemic, exponential curve, intensive care, quarantine, “can you hear me?”;
8. I could elaborate on how I have resigned myself to the idea that: the world as we know it is collapsing, the markets are crashing (and how bad this is – or actually very good?), the future is a mystery, and we actually cannot do much about it. So yeah, enjoy the ride (inside);
9. I could write an essay on how I deeply hope this crisis will give us insights, hints on what’s important in life, on what directions to take, on what stress is and if it’s really worth it, on our relationship with ourselves and others, on the use of technology, on our work, on “free time”, on freedom, justice, borders and peace. On what not only fills – but especially fulfils.
Donatella Gasparro today graduated as a master’s student in Organic Agriculture; she hails from Italy.
