We will be human again
Shumë do të humbasin të dashurit e tyre, punën e tyre, burimin e të ardhurave, dinjitetin. Po kur të mbarojë epidemia, nuk mund të përjashtohet se do të ketë nga ata që nuk do të duan të kthehen në jetën e tyre të mëparshme. Kush, nëse është e mundur, do të lërë një punë që me vite e ka mbytur dhe e ka shtypur. Kush do të vendosë të braktisë familjen, t’i thotë lamtumirë bashkëshortit, ose partnerit. Kush do të vendosë të ketë një fëmijë, apo të mos e ketë kurrë një të tillë. Kush do të besojë në Zot dhe kush do të heqë dorë nga besimi tek Ai.
2020-03-29 11:44:18
Erjon Uka
By David Grossman / The epidemic is bigger than we are and in a way we fail to conceive it. It's stronger than any flesh-and-bone enemy we've ever faced, stronger than any superhero we've ever imagined or seen in movies.
Sometimes a cold thought creeps into my heart: this is probably a fight we will lose. A war that will turn us into a lost world. As in the Spanish flu times. But we immediately throw away such a scenario. Why should we go astray? We are in the 21st century! We are sophisticated, computerized, equipped with weapons arsenals, vaccinated, protected from antibiotics…
And yet something tells us that this time the rules of the game are different to the point that at least for now, there are no rules at all. Every hour we count the terrified sick and the dead in every corner of the world as the enemy we face does not reflect any signs of fatigue or capitulation claiming more casualties. Using our bodies to reproduce.
There is something threatening in the lack of face of this epidemic, in its invisible savagery. It seems to want to absorb everything in our whole being, which suddenly appears fragile and vulnerable to us. Even the vastness of words in recent months has failed to make this spread a little more comprehensible and somewhat more predictable.
"Until the plague is not human-sized," writes Albert Camus in his book Plague, "we think it's just unrealistic just a bad dream to come true. But in fact not always the danger passes and from bad dream to bad dream, it is the people who pass ... they thought that everything was still possible for them, assuming the dangers were impossible. They went on to do business, plan trips and have thoughts. How could they think of the plague that would destroy the future…? ”
We know: a certain percentage of the population will be infected by the virus. A certain percentage will die. In the United States there is talk of one million casualties. Death is tangible. Whoever can, removes that thought. But it can take away who owns a fervent imagination - like the author of these ranks for example. And so his words deal with a certain dose of skepticism, he is a victim of thoughts and scenarios that multiply at a rate no less than that of spreading the virus. Almost everyone I meet projects on me the possibilities of his future, in an epidemic of roulette. And of my life without it. And of his life without me. Every meeting, every conversation, can be the last.
The circle is narrowing: initially announced cancellation of flights. They then closed down venues, theaters, sports complexes, museums, asylums, schools, universities. Humanity is turning off its lights, one after another.
Suddenly a drama of Bible proportions is being played out in our lives. "And God sent death to the people." He sent it all over the world. Each of us is part of this drama, no one is excluded, no one is less involved than the others.
On the one hand, by the nature of the carnage, the dead we do not know are numbers, anonymous, faceless people. On the other hand, looking at our loved ones, we understand the extent to which every human being represents in itself an irreplaceable civilization. The uniqueness of each one breaks down with an unexpected cry, and as love leads us to choose a single person among the many who go through our lives, so does the awareness of death.
And blessed be the humor, the best way to handle all this. When we even get to laugh at the Covid-19 situation we actually state that we are not completely paralyzed. That we still have freedom of movement. We continue to fight and are not vulnerable victims (in fact we are, but we have found a way to respond to this dreadful thought and even laugh).
For many, the epidemic can turn into a fatal, life-sustaining event.
When it is over, people will finally be able to leave home after a long quarantine and discover new and startling opportunities, perhaps created by contact with the very foundation of our existence. Perhaps approaching death and the miracle of salvation will overwhelm women and men. Many will lose their loved ones, their jobs, their source of income, their dignity. But when the epidemic is over, it cannot be excluded that there will be those who do not want to return to their former lives. Who, if possible, will quit a job that has stifled and crushed him for years. Who will decide to leave the family, say goodbye to the spouse or partner. Who will decide to have a baby, or never have one. Who will believe in God and who will renounce faith in Him.
Awareness of the fragility and vulnerability of life will push men and women to set new priorities, to better distinguish between what is important and what is futile. Realizing that time, not money, is the most precious resource. There will be those who, for the first time, wonder about the choices they have made, about giving up, about compromises. On the loves that dared not love. For lives that have not lived. Men and women will wonder, for a while, but at least they will wonder why they spend their existence in bitter relationships.
There will also be those who reconsider their political opinions based on the anxieties or values that will dissolve during the epidemic. There will also be those who already doubt the reasons that lead a people to fight an enemy for generations, to believe that war is inevitable. It is possible that an experience as difficult and profound as what we live in may cause one to reject nationalist positions, for example, everything that divides us, alienates us, leads us to hate and isolate ourselves. Perhaps there will be those who, for the first time, wonder why the Israelis and Palestinians have continued to fight and destroy each other's lives for more than a century, in a war that could have been long settled .
The use of imagination in the current abyss of despair and fear has its strength. It allows us to see not only catastrophic scenarios, but to maintain a certain mental freedom. The ability to imagine better times means that we have not let the epidemic and fear take us away. It is therefore to be hoped that when the danger of the epidemic has passed and the atmosphere of recovery breathes, people will show a different mood: they will be overwhelmed by a sense of relief, by a new coolness.
Perhaps there will be anyone who, seeing the wicked effects of welfare society, will feel disgusted by banality, will realize how terrible it is to have very rich people and very poor others. It's terrible that in a rich world not all babies have the same opportunities. We are part of the same human fabric. The good of the globe where we live is also ours and is important to our well-being, the purity of our spirit, the future of our children.
Perhaps even the media present almost entirely in our lives and in our time will honestly ask ourselves what role has played in creating the general state of disgust we felt before the epidemic.
Will these scenarios really come true? And who knows. If they do, I fear they will disintegrate quickly and things will return as before. Like before the epidemic, before the flood. It is very difficult to find out what is going to happen up to that point. But we would do well to ask questions, how about a drug, until we find the real vaccine against the plague.
* David Grossman is one of the most successful Israeli writers whose books have been translated into more than 30 languages around the world. He has written not only novels but also children's books, poetry and opera. In 2017 he won the Man Booker International Prize and in 2018 the Israel Prize in Literature. The article was translated by Erjon Uka.
