Someday down the road we’ll talk about “that Coronavirus,” and we’ll balk at the enormity of it — and chuckle about the shortage of toilet paper and groan at all the beer jokes. Even now, amidst the quarantine and panic, we have to find a reason to laugh.
Case in point: Spain. The whole country is under lock-down. All citizens are stuck in their apartments. People are allowed to wander outside only under very specific circumstances: to visit the pharmacy, go to the supermarket, and walk their dog.
You know what comes next. Some ingenious soul starts renting dogs.
Let’s say his name is Pepe el Perrin Prestao (an imaginary person), and oh my he’s good. 100 Euros for half an hour! 150 Euros for an hour! The dogs are black-marketed from apartment to apartment. Humans are happy. Hounds, even more so; they get to sniff out the neighborhood all day long, eye the squirrels, and mark every tree as they go. The police are confused. All they can think is, Why do all local dogs look the same? But what are the police going to do? Arrest the neighbors for dog-trafficking? Dogs need walking and walk they must. (See this video for proof; note it’s in Spanish.)
But that leaves a lot of free time, and the Spanish like to celebrate free time.
One calm night, Ms. Bella del Baile Barbaro, the 9th neighbor on the left (and also imaginary), makes it happen. She’s a DJ in her spare time, and she pulls her equipment up to the open window, loudspeakers at maximum, and with a flick of a switch the night air is filled with muuuuuusic. She’s got an enormous strobe flickering behind her. The light glitters onto the apartment complex outside, lighting up the darkness, and no worries the neighbors are at the ready. All apartment lights go off, windows are opened, strobe is met with strobe, and the music seeps into every crevice.
It ain’t half bad. The youth bounce and dance in their living rooms. Children chuckle and run in circles slapping their feet and clapping their hands. And even the old and revered sway to the beat. Amidst the panic and quarantine, the neighborhood has fiesta. This is humanity, and nothing will stop their reveries. (Check out this video.)
I’m sure you have your own stories. If you don’t, look for them. They’re everywhere. We will survive this, and someday we’ll tell our grandchildren about all the funny memes. We’ll laugh about the “Corona generation” born 9 months after the quarantine. We’ll groan about something too. But we’ll have good stories to tell, lots of stories. Pay attention: The best is yet to come.
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