"Spain without tambourines"

March 20 2020 (10:46 WET)

How did we take short distances, the freedom of a walk, and long hugs for granted?

How did we think the earth was light? If we are on a diet of seeing sunsets.

I had never clearly understood the meaning of the Homeland, of the "Viva España" of the anthem or of a national flag in which half feel they do not fit...

Possibly because, seeing it now, clearly (between walls without being able to go for a walk, dreaming of a swim in the tide, and drawing my friends laughing among wines and many other good things...)

I realize how naive we have been, taking what we have experienced so much for granted.

Possibly nothing is a coincidence...

Coronavirus, haze, fires are the symptoms that tune into the Planet's cry saying it can't take it anymore.

Everything has changed. I have come across the homeland from one week to the next.

And I have finally understood what it is.

Those who make Spain LIVE are Healthcare and the balconies.

The homeland is this collective confinement, not something as simple as waving a flag on Hispanic Day.

We who are of beers and tapas until eternity.

The homeland is my cousin Catalina, saving lives in Cuenca on her birthday. And all the healthcare workers who risk their lives every day. Not just Doctors. Assistants, orderlies, administrative staff...ALL.

The homeland is the cashiers and the stockers.

The homeland is those who drive, and everyone who hasn't stopped.

They are the workers and entrepreneurs who boost the economy.

And yes, in this country we love a party. Well, we are of hot blood.

But when it's time to get serious, even the Germans have us in mind.

I think of Anne Frank! That virus was indeed lethal! In everyone who flees and encounters a wall of lack of solidarity. In a world that doesn't stop shouting that when it feels like it, it will be the end.

Love has stopped sprouting, not even Mercadona is a safe place to flirt anymore. And that it is almost spring and there will be no kisses to alter it.

Yes. We have seen supermarket carts full of selfishness. But we have also seen balconies full of solidarity, applause and much civility.

How fragile is the stability of this life of leisure and all-inclusive...that in nothing is lost what was taken for granted.

We have learned that cuts in healthcare kill us. And that the management of a crisis with Draghi leaves the current Europe very exposed, which lacks much unity, but even more solidarity.

But above all, what we have learned is that the biggest virus that has been infecting us for years is individualism... And that its only antidote is the awareness of practicing solidarity and the urgency of environmentalism.

And that when we all go together, we always win.

Although they have canceled everything for us. They will never be able to cancel our desire to hug each other again.

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