The ‘old life’

MEDIUM RARE

ABS-CBN news anchor Bernadette Sembrano’s throw-away line during her extro, “I’m not going back to my old life!” was said with such glee and gusto, it made my day!

She did not elaborate, but everyone who heard her knew what she meant. There’s merit in staying home, keeping still and not giving in to the pressures of “having to” do this-and-that just to please and be with others. If there’s anything to be learned from the March 2020-March 2022 experience, it’s that there’s nothing wrong with slowing down, allowing boredom into your sked, finding pleasure in solitude. As any psychotherapist worth his chair will tell you, alone does not mean lonely.

I cannot imagine how another Bernadette I know, a much more private person, has grown so used to the near normal that family members have begun to think of her as Sister Bernadette,  a nun living in a nunnery of one with only her faithful cook, gardener, shopper, etc. for company. Her work in the office 22 km away has learned to adjust to her, minus her physical presence.

Not all students have readjusted to campus life. BPO agents prefer to keep their WFH schedules. Government endorses a four-day work week with two extra hours added per day. Very senior citizens find comfort, security, the joys of solitude at home. Husbands are much more handy to have around.  

The “old life” was good as a measure of one’s busy-ness and preoccupations (aside from occupation), but as we’re about to step out the door of the old life, we must now look out the window for dark clouds overhead: a war in Ukraine that could spill over to half the world; the threat of nuclear warfare; more COVID-19 variants sneaking up; the uncertainty of the future nine months away.

The old life that some of us won’t be missing still has legs to make a comeback. City traffic hasn’t gone away, even with fuel prices at their highest in decades. Two days ago, expecting lighter traffic, I took the usual route to my usual destination at the usual time. How did the experiment go? I arrived 10 minutes earlier than usual: success or failure? Should I have expected more, i.e., less traffic?