Week 33 - Contemplating a new, new normal and life after the pandemic

Edited BY

G P Kennedy


Ellie – Milan, Italy


So it's the new, new normal in Italy. This avocado illustrates the situation very well. We feel enclosed in plastic and it has invaded the public space even where it feels ridiculous. But it is necessary.


After this is all over, though, I think this multiplication of plastic everywhere - which we were trying to eliminate - may be the worst development brought about by the pandemic.


Since going out for a walk is more or less the only activity that most people in the red zones can hope for, I decided to take nature, and our relationship to it, as my story this week.

 



We also feel more disoriented as ever, like this plant growing in a building drain. It stretches up, looking for light, but does not realize how hopeless it is to reach above the ground.


In its own perspective, the ground is way under what most people and plants know it to be. From its perspective, again, 

 





On my way home, I found these two olives on the ground next to a wild-growing olive tree. Olives are not a staple in Lombardy. Not because of the climate, since the olive oil of Lake Garda is famous for its specific taste.


So the fact that an olive has grown here, at the margin of a vacant lot, is a blessing. A fruit tree that grows without a human purpose…just because. It doesn't mean to be useful, it just forges ahead, or up, to the inspiration of the passers-by. 

 






Nature is definitely changing and it seems there is no hint, in its course, of the crisis we are going through. Some people think that we shouldn't separate and oppose humans to nature. That we are also natural, so everything we do is part of it, too.


Just like ants build homes in the ground, but they aren't labeled artificial, the same way that we build should not be considered non-natural. And this refers to plants that can't and would not exist without human intervention.


I predict that, if left unchecked, this wall will be completely covered by ivy. As it grows, its tentacles will gradually break crevices in it and, if time is allowed to pass, eventually destroy it. If it is part of the natural course of the ivy, why not think of it as natural, too?

 



Just as death is not really an end but the beginning of life of other creatures - or another part of human experience, in the view of some people - I take this tree stump, with its new plant growing in the middle, as a visual aspiration.


Everything seems to be shaped by the virus these days.


Is its promise of renewal a confirmation that there is life after coronavirus? Just a thought. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 44 - Mixed messages lead to protests in Turkey

Image
Edited BY G P Kennedy Gul- Aegean Coast, Turkey  The weather was icy cold last week, when I said I can’t take another day, suddenly that feeling of spring was in the air.   According to the Turkish folk calendar, the first Cemre - imagine a meteor fireball passing by up in the sky, warming the air - fell on Feb 19 and 20. There are two more yet to fall, one on Feb 26 and 27 and the last two in March – also will lead to the New Year Nevruz (Nowruz, Iranian).    They say the first Cemre always falls to the air, the second to the water, and the third to the earth.  Nowadays, because of warmer weather, we are able to have coffee in our garden with our neighbors and have a chat. Otherwise, we were overwhelmed with loneliness.  POLITICAL CRAZINESS  Our ordinary lives can be boring but daily politics is the opposite, there was a controversial event almost every day this week.   This country will make all of us mentally sick. It is ...
Read more

Week 49 - Simon says, 'Count your blessings my fellow Aussies'

Image
Edited BY G P Kennedy Simon - Perth, WA   Hi everyone, hope all is well wherever you are.  So here we are at the end of March in Western Australia, which means over 12 months of the Pandemic.   Across all of the country, the vaccines are being slowly rolled out but we are not hitting our intended targets.   This seems to be a combination of lack of supply and the doses being given by GP’s rather than at vaccination centers. I guess the only thing that stops this from being a real concern is the size of our case numbers.   The vast majority of our small number of cases is from returned overseas travelers who are put in quarantine anyway.   This week sees a small outbreak in Queensland with some community transmission. This has led to a snap three-day lockdown to try and contain it and perform contact tracing.  Going forward it looks like this will happen fairly frequently. We have demonstrated that these short and sharp lockdowns seem...
Read more

Week 15 - Wednesday in Milan explores the 'new normal' for Ellie

Image
Edited BY G P Kennedy Ellie - Milan, Italy    “How are y'all doing?” a friend from Texas asked me recently. I am happy to report that the contagion rate in Italy have been mostly down. Daily rates of new infections have been around 150 for the country.    I have the feeling, though, that this is due not only to scared people who mostly stick to their masks and distancing, but of the possibility to do things outdoors, which is what helps with holding new infections down. There are many unwelcome signs for change, though. For example, hope for getting rid of plastics, and its dispersal in the environment, is definitely given up.    Now that all coffee shops, company cafeterias and restaurants that hope to have clients indoors are required to outfit their spaces with distancing partitions, plastic has drastically increased. But it has also started causing some awkward moments.    I met with a friend for a coffee recently, our first get together after...
Read more