Barcelona ("locked down")

The COVID-19 pandemic has probably affected every single person on Earth, however directly or indirectly, as well as all other forms of life. Our pets, or the non-human species closest to us, have perhaps felt the most immediate effects of the crisis, depending on whether or not they have been able to spend more time with us- and whether or not they like it. Many of our canine companions have been in their glory, relishing every extra moment spent with their beloved humans, while many of our feline friends have surely felt slight pangs of irritation for having to do the same. Still more have suffered great loss as the virus has swiftly swept across the world, leaving a tragic wake in trail.

In many places, wild animals have taken to the streets in the absence of Homo sapiens. Wild boars have been prevalent in much of Spain, which fortunately are far less terrifying than the ‘’pigoons’’ of Margaret Atwood’s Flood Trilogy. The air has been noticeably cleaner, too.

With the hum of humanity at a minimum for the first time in years, previously silenced sounds from the rest of the planet can now be heard- and I hope they are heeded. For too long we’ve tried to ignore nature by busying ourselves with what we coin “progress”, while choking within the confines of an increasingly progressive and closed society. We seek to escape through the screens of programmed reality, the foundations of which were laid by people no longer able to control their outcome.

For the first time in my life, I had found a job for which I would have had to travel a lot and by the time the “lockdown” started, I had already been to Bologna and Paris. Set to go to Grenoble, the conference was cancelled the week before and since then, I have already foregone Brussels and Tampere. Fiuggi is off the table, too. But the work continues to get done.

We should have seen this coming- we saw this coming- but those of us who could have done something about it chose not to. Whether it was due to ignorance or denial or something more sinister, our short game approach to life will cost us dearly, though of course those who are paying the highest price for it are the ones who are at the mercy of the masters, who are merciless. In time we will discover how to move forward from here, and whether or not anything we’ve learned from this experience will lead to positive change.

I like to think it will.