Editor’s notes #2
Hello!
How are you? How have you been doing for the past few weeks?
The last time I wrote one of these notes, Madrid was taking its first steps towards freedom and this “new normality” that we are now facing pretty much everywhere.
Even though we are allowed to go for a walk outside (on designated times), that we can now move all over town and shops are getting back to business… Madrid still feels like a dormant city.
There is still quiet, even though that you can see more people and cars outside. And yes, it feels good to see the city (slowly) going back to life. But it’s still sad and heartbreaking, because you know what lead us here and that we aren’t completely safe.
I thought, for weeks, that when this day came: being able to leave home and visit my beloved, I would burst with joy. Unfortunately, it haven’t happened.
I am still confined inside my teeny-tiny apartment. Not because I am told to, but because I don’t feel safe going outside. Unless it’s for meaningful reasons - like shopping for groceries or going to the pharmacy.
I don’t feel the urge to meet my friends for coffee, even though I love (and miss) them to the bone. I think that this is the moment to be even more responsible and cautions, not the moment to let our guard down.
One of the my reasons why I am not compelled to go out, is the amount of trash is mindlessly being created at the moment. Besides the disposable face masks and gloves being discarded pretty much everywhere, most cafés are serving your food and coffee on disposable single-use containers. And that is something I don’t want to be part of.
The Earth has blossomed during the lockdown. Animals returned to places where they haven’t been in ages. The air was purer. The pollution levels went down. And now… this.
What are we doing to the planet? How long will these behaviours prevail?
I would like to know… how are you adapting to this new reality? What’s it like in your city? What are you doing to keep your zero waste practices at bay?
Stay safe,
Marisa
