As I announced last week, this is my last installment of travel from the heart. I started on Sunday March 15 and, until now, every Sunday I have been giving a word to this situation that we have to live. But I consider that there is a time for everything: a time to speak and a time to be silent; time to communicate and time to assimilate, time to expose and expose-me and time to reserve-me.
I like writing, putting a word to what I am living helps me and allows me to let out what I see and above all what I feel. Not only narrate, inform, but communicate that it seems to me they are different things although they are similar. Going through these 12 weeks, most of them, in total confinement, has been a privileged time to let myself feel in many hours of silence and to be able to pour out for my friends my varied emotions, always from the inside out.
This ending has been one of the most intense on a personal level but I have also been able to be an observer of what is happening in our environment at this time of coronavirus. And it worries me again, and in such a strong way that it causes me real pain, the panorama that our MPs are offering. I feel great shame from others. A similar scenario full of personal and family insults, without a minimum level of respect – let us not ask for kindness and good treatment, it would be too much! – is at least embarrassing.
And this can never be justified, but much less in historical moments like those that we have. It does not seem to have weight the thousands of dead of what we have left a long duel as a country; It does not take into account the number of families that are losing their jobs, the social services that are running out and we cannot continue to respond to emergencies at all levels.
I wonder what do our politicians need to unite, to focus together on the real problems of society? It gives the impression that the etymology of that word is unknown, because public affairs do not deserve attention but that personalisms are on the surface and using the most offensive and unpleasant disqualifying methods. Is this the use they make of their power? It is clear that service to society does not matter, it does not deserve attention, then? What do we feel doomed to as a country? Of course, we proclaim everywhere “we come out stronger” … really, can this be credible? Stronger in what: to crush, to impose, to insult, to seek what is mine without taking into account the we? I firmly believe that we need to enter before leaving; enter into reflection, awareness and responsibility, in taking charge of the consequences of this pandemic that cannot be solved with advertising phrases.
However, along with this panorama that appears – and it is! – very grim, society also stands firm: health workers who do not stop gambling for the health of citizens, educators who continue to teach their classes on foot, without stopping believing and betting on education as an effective tool for people and societies; public servants who tirelessly dedicate themselves to making this difficult time more bearable for all people, researchers who are looking for a vaccine that will remedy this pandemic … countless the number of those who practice politics at street level without high-sounding words, with kindness , with true social responsibility and good work.
And this keeps us in hope and confidence, this vitamin complex that we need in large doses and that is not magic, it needs to mix well-done work so that the labor vacuum that comes to us is recovered, with firm bets on the part of the authorities. Hopefully we will bring out the best in each person, those resources to resist to overcome, to remain to continue dreaming of the future and that it has the dignity that we as human beings need.
And I cannot finish these stories without remembering that today we celebrate the feast of Pentecost, that is, the coming of the Holy Spirit, feast of the Church, of life, of the light and force of an impetuous wind; Those 50 days of Easter end, this year has been so special, we will surely not forget it.
And the Word of this Sunday reminds us:
“… the disciples were closed in their house out of fear … and Jesus appears saying: Peace to you …” How are we overcoming fears that confine us at home and within us? In what way are we making a chain of peace? What good news are we transmitting ?.
And by happy coincidence also on May 31, 1845, Santa Cándida María de Jesús was born. This celebration is also virtual but no less from the heart and very universal because the media allow it; we connect and find ourselves on the screen because before we have connected in the heart.
And I end with words borrowed from deep life experiences, such as that of V. Frankl in his memorable book “The Man in Search of Meaning”.
We also need in times of crisis, verse and rhyme that Unamuno’s poetry brings us: “To hope”
Thank you very much for the echoes and messages received around these trips! We continue walking in hope and hope …
María Luisa Berzosa fi Entrevías – Madrid