Let me start by telling you that I went for a trip in an actual car!  Yes.  A car.  This hasn’t happened in the last couple of months, and the relief that I can still drive was overwhelming.  With the ease on lock down, I decided to go out to some artificial lakes here in Dubai.  Hoping, of course, that not too many people would be around.  Maybe my son and I could walk around a bit looking at the wildlife roaming freely on newly claimed land.

Wearing a mask is mandatory.   Earlier, I did manage to get hold of this black cloth mask where you could insert a filter thingy.  Works fine, and I managed to breathe through it despite the suffocating smell of the cloth pressed firmly against my nose and mouth.  Honestly, this is enough reason to not want to go out.  The mere requirement of strapping a mask on made the prospect of walking out in nature a sentence served.

This made me feel sad about the people working outdoors in this weather.  It also made me think about all the doctors and the nurses…  Hardship factor should surely apply to them.  It’s really not  easy.   God help them and help our mask infested way of life in this all too foreseeable saddened future.  We all need to slow down and expand our awareness from other people’s perspective.  To venture into their worlds a bit as this will surely establish a connection, albeit virtual, or enlighten us perhaps.

But…the lakes.

They had some wandering wildlife.  Ducks, flamingos, and others of Aves family.  Happily, not so many wandering Homo Sapiens.  It was welcoming to be outside for a change of scenery.  After parking in an isolated spot, we took our masks off, and got out of the car.  It surely felt like we were guests in somebody’s home.  Somebody important, who’s home we cared for as we do for our own.  It was a lost feeling discovered, and it made me think of the values we grew up with.  You know, respecting others’ rights and belongings, what is not ours, and also what is.  I remembered how important it was not to take things for granted.  Most  importantly, though, I thought about boundaries, not the physical ones, instead the ones we don’t see or read.  The ones that resonate between all of us, yet go undetected until it’s too late.

Reclaimed Land

The lake was man-made (or human-made as some places call it).  It was built on borrowed land, and, the smallest of life forms have effortlessly managed to allow the owner to reclaim it and settle some of its progeny within it.  After all, everything we create is on borrowed space…and time.  When we mismanage it, it’s off to the corner, dears.  We, too, are its progeny.

History repeats itself

History in cycles. Isn’t this what is happening right now?  Unless, of course,  there is a round table with devilish razor sharp arcs, where the real owners scheme and decide on the future of humankind, all the while sipping on some weird, distasteful brew.  Maybe not as religious an allusion as Chris De Burgh’s “Spanish Train” (search for it on YouTube) but similar.  “Get rid of this, and get me that instead”, says one evil sipper, “who’s willing to trade?”.  “I am”, says another.  “I’m tired of shaking the ground under this part of the world.  Give me a new geography to play with.”

Why not just say that we are all on the same table being passed around to different players seated around it, on which a couple of good doers are seated as well.  A dipole world would have 2 good doers playing, while a monopole world would have one good doer playing.  The other went to the toilet or got a call from the wife.  Yeah, no matter who is in control, the top of the pyramid is a woman, almost certainly a wife of course 🙂

So anyway, on the way back from the lakes, my son asks whether any fast food joints would be open for take aways given the current situation.  Well, what do you know, Burger King was, and a whopping smile appeared on our faces.  Thank God for masks.  We really did not want to be seen with such odd expressions.  We headed for the drive through, and totally wrecked the civilized concept of ordering through a microphone and speaker.  It was enough for the muffled sounds through the masks to literally blow holes in the ordering process.  “I’d life a sicken fiyet with flies pweathe, and a code. Egular thighs.”  Yep, that was ‘I’d like a chicken fillet with fries please, and a coke.  Regular size’.  Surely some dudes on the evil table placed bets on whether I’d get the right order or not.  I’m telling you, they…are…messing with us.

So we head to the ‘order pick-up’ window, pay up and wait.  I could not help it.  I felt like a 5 year old. “Yol bunny ol yul life” as my index finger transformed into a gun barrel, and my thumb into its handle.  I could not resist.  It was a calling I had to fulfill, the sketch; not the robbery, just to be clear.  Mask – check.  Gun – check. Point of robbery – check.  The reaction on the person handing me the food was…well, it was hilarious but imaginary.  I didn’t do it.  I wasn’t going to embarrass my 11 year old son.  But the urge…ooohhh!!!  It was very hard to control.  I’m getting take-away tonight.  ALONE!!

No doubt that the events in the world today will require a lot to change, from the simple drive-thru ordering process to global aspects.  Change is difficult, but necessary.  The outcome is what should really concern us.  Does it end up for the better or for the worse.  Am I up for it?  Will it work for me?  What do I do if it doesn’t?  This year will go down in history, which we all know is written by the victor, and I hope the good guys win.  The good guys for you and I are different because the views outside our windows are different.  In essence, however, we all want something better.  A more balanced world perhaps.  A less biased one?  One where we get free tickets to that roller coaster everyone wants to get on maybe.

When we mismanage it, it’s off to the corner, dears.  We, too, are its progeny.

But what is our contribution?  Or are we just laying back and watching?  Are we really that eager to go back a few months in time?  It is for some, but not for the vast majority.  Despite the conspiracy theories, the wreckage of unemployment, and the unequal disbursement of opportunities, there is a chance to re-define the future of this history.  Let’s not renovate the old.  Renovating is for what’s appealing.  Let’s demolish and rebuild, while only rediscovering some worthy designs of the past, that older generations remembered, and new generations have never experienced before. 

All I know is that our new year resolutions for 2020 are running late.  Nevertheless they are still running.  Don’t postpone or settle with holding off on your plans, except if they’re evil of course.  Work through the obstacles, and keep going.  A few years from now, the stories we tell the growing generations should be of accomplishment and resolve.  More importantly about “the battle” with no sides.  One where everybody wins.  Imagine that story of “a history that is worth repeating itself”.

For now, it’s gun – check, mask – check…  Stay safe for long and away from Burger King for the next 20 minutes.