The hope || La esperanza #HelpingJau

It is not the first time that there is a pandemic in the world, it is not the first time that so many people are dying and getting sick in different countries, but for the same causes, it is not the first time that the same evil threatens so many people at the same time.

But this is the first time it has attacked us!

I am convinced that one of the reasons why this virus spread the way it did, was because of "not believing". Many times we hear about things that happen elsewhere and the news itself makes us see it as something far away, something that cannot reach us. This is how we often see wars, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. And I know that many people saw in this way a virus that appeared in a Chinese city, which is (for us) on the other side of the world. And when we began to be alerted, it seemed to us exaggerations, political speeches with certain "unsuspected" purposes, manipulations of the media or of I don't know what entity, in order to keep people in their homes, in short, it sounded to us like hoaxes.

And we knew that it was spreading, but it was still far away. We began to know of personalities who died for this cause, but it was still far away. But one day we realize that a neighbor already has it, that several of your relatives got sick and one of them died. It is now that you begin to realize that "this" evil is not so far away.

This is when the anguish, the fears, the uncertainties come!

In my family we understood from the beginning what this was all about and since then we have been facing it as if we were living in a war, because that is what we have to fight, a hard war against a practically invisible enemy. From the very first day we assumed the responsibility to protect ourselves with all possible measures. But we also know that this enemy has many tricks to violate these measures, so we must act in extreme, we must be exaggerated if necessary, to avoid at all costs that the enemy knocks on our doors.

No es la primera vez que hay una pandemia en el mundo, no es la primera vez que tanta gente va muriendo y enfermando en distintos países, pero por las mismas causas, no es la primera vez que el mismo mal amenaza a tantas personas al mismo tiempo.

¡Pero es la primera vez que nos ataca a nosotros!

Estoy convencido de que una de las razones por las cuales este virus se expandió de la manera que lo hizo, fue por “no creer”. Muchas veces nos enteramos de cosas que pasan en otras partes y las mismas noticias lo hacen ver como algo lejos, algo que no nos puede alcanzar. Así vemos muchas veces las guerras, los terremotos, tsunamis, etc. Y sé que muchos vieron así un virus que apareció en una ciudad china, que está (para nosotros) del otro lado del mundo. Y cunado nos empezaron a alertar, nos parecían exageraciones, discursos políticos con determinados fines “insospechados”, manipulaciones de los medios o de no sé qué ente, con miras a mantener a la gente en sus casas, en fin, nos sonaba a patrañas.

Y supimos que se fue extendiendo, pero seguía estando lejos. Empezamos a saber de personalidades que murieron por esta causa, pero sigue siendo lejos. Pero un día nos damos cuenta que ya lo tiene un vecino, que varios familiares tuyos se enfermaron y uno de ellos murió. Es ahora que empiezas a darte cuenta que “este” mal no está tan lejos.

¡Aquí vienen entonces las angustias, los temores, las incertidumbres!

En mi familia entendimos desde el comienzo de lo que se trataba esto y desde entonces hemos venido enfrentado esto como quien vive en una guerra, porque en definitiva es eso lo que hay que librar, una dura guerra contra enemigo prácticamente invisible. Desde el primer día asumimos la responsabilidad de protegernos con todas las medidas posibles. Pero también sabemos que este enemigo tiene muchos trucos como para violentar esas medidas, por lo cual hay que actuar en extremo, hay que ser exagerado si es preciso, para evitar a toda costa que el enemigo toque a nuestras puertas.

There is a lesson that life has given me, about those people who have had to live the hardest and cruellest realities, I am talking about people in countries that in a war buried almost 30 million of their children, like the Soviet people in the Second World War, stories of survivors of Nazi concentration camps, or the Vietnamese people who in many occasions had to live months underground to avoid being victims of the napalm that incinerated entire populations. That teaching is that the only way to survive any war or any adversity is to keep faith, no matter how remote it may seem, to keep hope alive even if it seems absurd and, above all, to keep the spirit and courage high.

These days, in the knowledge of several near deaths, I questioned myself whether in these conditions one should continue writing poetry, making music. The answer was given to me by that memory. Knowing that in these beautiful things is where man takes shelter to strengthen his faith in life and the will to live and fight for life to go on, is the flag that all of us who have the creative capacity or the possibility of making it reach those who need it most should carry.