Where Has It Gone?

 

The blanks were becoming stronger. The lapses in speech were increasing. Choosing the correct word in any of the languages spoken mixed, were blurted out, but didn´t match at all. It didn´t matter if she were speaking in her native language, the words still slipped through the brain cells and played hide and seek. More and more, people were trying to fill in the blanks while they spoke to her in an attempt to help her. However, the feeling of incompetence only grew each and every time that happened. The feeling of stupidity took over and then all the words seemed to flee. There were times when none of the words from any language came to mind. If she were speaking face to face, gestures were possible to use, however, on the phone what was one to do?  

 

On a bright Saturday morning she had her breakfast and started preparing lunch just to have it ready for when her stomach growled. She decided to make her favorite vegetable in meat broth soup. When she started to add the ingredients, she couldn´t remember the seasoning. Lucky for her, she cooked very well and whatever she added tasted decent. The lid was put on and when it came to a boil, she lowered the flame and went upstairs to get ready to go out. Shower, makeup, clothes and shoes.

 

Out the door she went, it was around 11 am. Car out of the garage, she headed over to visit her grandchildren. Forgot the mask in the house, but she kept a box of disposable ones in the car, just in case. And this was the case as it had been every time she had to go out. A bottle of hand sanitizer and gloves also kept the masks company in the car as well as in the house. Funny how the products in the house never needed to be replaced.

 

She played all afternoon with the grandchildren and a big doubt suddenly hit her. Had she closed the garage gate? It was somewhat automatic, but you still had to press the button. Had she pressed the button? Not needing to cause an embarrassment, she got up and fled to her home without explaining herself “visit over” she let out waving her goodbyes.

 

On the drive to her home, she kept praying that she had remembered to close it. Turning the curb, a sense of relief came over her and she could see from afar that she had remembered to shut it. Celebrating within, she pressed the button to open the gate. Slowly it went up. She could smell smoke. Fear over took her. The pot of soup! She flew out of the car, opened the door, and noticed that she had forgotten the stove on in the kitchen. Luckily for her, the flame was low and the pot was full. She turned off the stove and opened all the windows to allow the smoke to clear. It was 3pm. She had been out of the house for 4 hours. How dangerous. How sad. How embarrassing. How worrisome. She picked up the burnt pot and place it in the box with all the other burnt pots she was going to dispose of.

 

Written: March 29, 2021

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Nearly 3000 Deaths

 

3000 deaths per day, hard to understand how this could be normal. Hard to comprehend the reason why people continue throwing parties, not wearing masks and being against the local government for locking down the city. How is it so hard to understand that the hospitals are full? There are no more beds for those who need them, fifty patients for one bed. People are dying waiting for a hospital bed. Is that so hard to understand?

Doctors and nurses are exhausted. They have been fighting this war against this virus for over a year now. Not only physically, but mentally too. My gratitude goes out to them! Many have been at it 24/7. It must not be easy to lose so many patients. Stop a minute and put yourself in their shoes. They are human too. They have feelings too. How can one choose who will live and who will die? Mind you, that now the scenario has changed. It is not the elderly who are dying without saying goodbye to their loved ones from the ICU, now it is the children who are dying without even being able to say goodbye to their parents.

Perhaps these rebellious people who refuse to stay home and wear a mask when they go out for vital reasons have to lose loved ones or people who are close to them to realize the calamity we are living at this day and time. If Sao Paulo were a country, it would be 3rd place in the ranking of countries that have lost the most people per day to the coronavirus; The US in first place and Brazil in second.

            Struggling with how insensitive, how selfish and how greedy people are. We have been in this storm for over a year now. You think people would have learned something from last year. It seems like it was a momentary thing. Perhaps it would have been momentary if people just had some compassion for other human beings and followed the recommendations from the health organization.

As if the virus weren´t enough, loads of people are suffering because they do not have anything to eat since they cannot go to work or have lost their jobs. Fortunately, there are those who value human life and donate time and food to those in need.

Wearing a mask, keeping a distance and washing your hands frequently. Just three tiny habits that everyone can incorporate in their busy lives. There are commercials where they show a mask and a respirator, and the question is so simple: which one would you rather wear? nutshell it is your choice. If not to save your life, do it for others.

 

Written: March 17, 2021

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Which is worse a rotten egg or a rotten apple?

 

This morning as I was preparing breakfast, I broke an egg into a bowl, and it was rotten. The stench was so bad that I almost puked. Luckily, I usually break eggs into separate bowls just in case it is bad and doesn't end up ruining the other of the ingredients already being used. It had been a long time since I had gotten a bad egg, however, this past week this is the second one, which makes me contemplate whether there will be more.

As I was throwing it away and cleaning up the sink, I started to think about the expression ‘a person is a rotten apple’. Nonetheless, I started thinking why we don't say the person's a rotten egg instead. Are rotten eggs or worse than apples? After some research I found out that there are both expressions.

If we take a look at the definition of each expression ; a person whose own words or actions negatively impacts an entire group of people taken from the proverb ‘ a rotten apple spoils the bunch’ is what you're trying to say when you say the person is a rotten apple.

However, if you say the person's rotten egg or a bad egg it means that this person is bad or despised ; an evil influence and right now I'm trying to wrap my head around the idea of which is worse because rotten eggs really reek and stink up the whole house.

On the other hand, if you have a rotten apple in a bag or in a basket, it starts spoiling the other apples that are touching it. But, in this case, there is no smell. At least not one that I can describe or that I can remember.

Needless to say , I do guess that these two expressions have a certain weight to them and if I may place myself in the shoes of that person who's being called a rotten egg or rotten apple, I would rather be called a rotten apple. It just sounds less gross.

What do you think?

 

Written: March 7, 2021

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