The Write Thing

I think that the so-called Influenza A (H1N1) should be a good vehicle for revising the age groups to which we connect. I have long heard the chant claiming that nobody cares about the elderly and they do not deserve such poor treatment, having done all they have for us, younger folks.

Well, my dear readers, let me break the news. You now have a golden opportunity to change the course of ungratefulness toward senior citizens. How? Follow me as I go through my reasoning.

There is not a lot of information on the H1N1 virus that is causing uncertainty and wreaking havoc with Argentine health authorities (well, it does not take much to wreak havoc with them anyway, but a virus is always a good excuse). However, a little bit of online research will reassure you about the most common prevention measures. These include boring stuff such as washing your hands a hundred times a day, staying away from potentially sick people, keeping your house clean, etc. Now, if you start reading about the way the disease is developing, you will learn that the tranche of the population above 65 years old or so have shown considerable resistance to the virus. Here is where the prevention guidelines could be expanded.

We live in a society that goes all soft on children and gives a little less than a damn about the elderly, even if some look good in pension funds commercials. The H1N1 pandemic now calls this preference into question. What are you thinking of staying anywhere near noisy infants with snots running down their noses and coughing on you every thirty seconds? No matter how charming those short versions of an adult may seem to you, my friend, you have to stay away from them. I know the temptation to play with the devilish creatures will be strong, but consider what sort of hands will soon be touching yours as you help them across the street, how dirty and full of viruses and bacteria they will be. You are in danger, and you have to face the fact.

Instead, reconsider your views on older people. I know some may bore you by telling you the same story over and over again, or even by speaking about recipes for hours on end. Their life seems uneventful to you? Dispel those thoughts…think how safe they are to be around. Who knows? There may be even some way of developing immunity by proximity…science evolves by the hour. Moreover, how many times have you been told you should slow down and calm your stress? Now you can do it by crossing the street in fifteen minutes instead of two, discussing the good old times as if they were still around, and a myriad other things that flailing memories allow. Think again, the elderly are not contagious.

My dear reader, you can do it. There is still time before H1N1 condemns you to a probable death in Argentina and a very difficult flu almost elsewhere. Go find an elderly person and make a new friend. You will not regret it.

If I could put words to my music, tonight would certainly involve Adriana Calcanhotto’s Mulher sem Razão. There is a lot of sense in that song, in many ways. My favorite lines are definitely the following:

Parta, pegue um avião, reparta
Sonhar só não tá com nada
É uma festa na prisão

Isn’t it the cruelest and truest of facts to actually accept that “dreaming alone does not mean anything, it is a party held in prison”? I guess it is, and that sometimes you do not know better than to have your party in prison. Why not? First of all, it is safer. Second…it still feels like a party.

Tonight, as I play the track from Maré in the background, I would say it is good to accept the fear, the risk of winning and losing (please let us face there are only very few win-win situations in life…somebody sooner or later pays for lunch). It is liberating in a way, it humanizes you. Admitting that fear is sometimes all you have is good enough to help you plod along and still cross the scary waters that separate you from your dream, whatever that is.

In this month of June, in a cold and H1N1-ridden Buenos Aires, only a few days after another commercial plane crashed with no real explanation, the uncomfortable question hangs in the air. We can have the party in prison and delude ourselves into thinking there will be a reason why we will not develop the fatal flu or our plane will not be buried in the cold waters of an unfathomable sea. We can have that limited range of security to build for ourselves…the cause why, regardless of how implausible it sounds. Yet, at the end of the day, we will still have a party in prison and there…we already know the guests.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been the recipient of an award. I have to thank Miss Fiamma for the honor, which I can only accept with a wide smile and a humble nod. According to the rules that come with the award, it must be granted to ten other blogs. This has been a difficult task, which took me longer to comply with than it should have I must confess. Whenever possible, I have tried not to repeat myself.

The instructions to be followed by my nominees are:

1. Place the logo in the blog.

2. Choose ten blogs that you would consider deserving of the award or towards which you experience gratitude.

3. Post links to the nominees on the blog.

4. Inform the winners that they have been granted this award by commenting in their blogs.

5. Share the love, publish the link to this post and to the person who made you recipient of the award.

And my nominees are (in no special order of appearance):

1. Emi, La seguridad de mis objetos, a charming journey into a life that blends art and its own everyday poetry in a unique manner.

2. Flash-me, Flash me if you can, a collection of creative flashes with a cryptic personal touch.

3. Geisha, El jardín de la geisha, a garden where everything grows, led by the hand of a masterful creator.

4. Manon, Blumenfest, a feast to good literature, music and writing, although it has been silent for a while.

5. Lola, Los cuadernos de Lola, an exploration into the world of words, of writing, fresh air into a different notebook.

6. Erica, Por amor al cine, a celebration of movies, with colorful reviews that only a movie buff can write.

7. Arha, A la luz de mi sombra, poetry…because it all starts there and very few privileged souls can be themselves in that sea of words.

8. T, Atrevete, another example of writing, an art that some can do in a unique way.

9. Miss Fiamma and Von E., Juego de damas, a game of two, elegantly open to an audience of thousands.

10. Jason Pettus, Jason Pettus, an artist who proves that you can live outside the system and still be heard.