I live in an important moment, I am part of a generation that has not lived in the great moments of history: I lived on the margins, in a sphere of comfort, I did not experience a war, nor a famine, nor did I go to fight. It is true that I have witnessed important and crucial moments - the image of planes crashing into the Twin Towers, the tragic morning of Atocha, the infinite war in Syria or in distant Yemen - dramatic and terrible images that I have experienced as a spectator with the sensation that there was little or nothing he could do.
The constant messages I receive to stay home make me feel that my inactivity is necessary, even heroic. What a paradox. Almost all of us give up our freedoms, our livelihoods, life as we knew it for the common good. We talk about empathy and solidarity from a sofa.
The real heroes are not locked up at home watching series: the real ones put themselves at risk every day healing, caring, cleaning, planting, transporting or filling our pantries. We, the confined, are nothing more than pieces of this board that are simply asked not to get in the way. I feel like a tin soldier on a shelf.
I am increasingly aware of the relevance of this crisis. We use war slang, we talk about fighting a war, we live in the trenches with IKEA furniture. We have lived, until today, with the feeling that we had some control over our destiny and now reality tells us that no, that our life can change in a moment. I don't know what I'm going to live on, but I don't know if that's really relevant, because what we're risking is much more valuable than what's material. I am open to experiencing this stage, willing to give up much of what I had, but I will not allow this situation to turn me into someone worse. I want to make a virtue of necessity and be something more than a tin soldier.
Published in The Voice of Asturias
