Page 36 - Adelante August 2020

36A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGEnotes from an antiquated queenTOPSY-TURVYHello, Queeridos!celebrating, in the middle of the episode we have a crisis, and by the end of the episode aliens are arriving on earth. You might think Iʼm overdramatizing our situation but, um, wasnʼt it right before July 4th that many states in our nation decided to stop reopening their states? Thatʼs right, it was just a month ago that such thing happened. And it happened a couple of days shy of the biggest celebration in this country, Independence Day. And look where we are today.helping us to slowly and surely keep certain awareness about our screwed up present and our uncertain future.It is August, queeridos, we are in the middle of the summer and I wonder if that actually matters.Among all these ups and downs and forwards and backwards days we are living, I only see one certain thing: the upcoming presidential elections, which I have to say, will be a topsy- turvy event by itself. Mark my words.Usually, for this monthʼs installment, I talk about “going back to school,” the excitement of wearing new clothes, the hopes of the new high school gay romances, the thrill of the many shirtless colleges guys passing by my window, the fantasies of beings swept away by a fraternity boy, and oh, so many other wonderful month-of-August things.Every day I see funny memes on Facebook. Memes that try to give us a laugh by stating that the months to come will be here with destruction and unimaginable events. Events like the arrival of Aliens in July (probably because there is a film titled, “Independence Day” where aliens arrived on earth and try to take over). August will have flying snakes. No, not as a punishment from some deity but because flying snakes really do exist, and because August seems to be as good as any other month in 2020 for the flying snakes to take over. I canʼt remember what the rest of the months will come with, but I am sure it is nothing good. Of course, these are all memes, created to give us a laugh and to help us cope with our COVID19 reality.I hope you donʼt think I am being a pessimist. I am not. Iʼm a realist. I do not fill my live with fantasies of “this and that.” On the contrary, I actually pay close attention to what is going on and what has happened before, and then I behave and make decisions accordingly. For many, though, my realistic view of life seems to be too much, so they see it as a pessimistic view of life. That is their problem not mine.This time Iʼm not. Why? Because COVID19, has truly hampered our lives, hasnʼt it? It really has topsy-turvy our entire existence. One day we are up, the next we are down. One day we are having lunch outside at our favorite taqueria, the next day the taqueria and the rest of the eating hubs are closed. One day we are ready to go to the cinema, the next day we are once again, trying to turn the living room into a film festival site. I can go on and on and on. But you get the idea and you are also living the situation so whatʼs the point de ponerle sal a la herida?For now, I continue living my life, and everyone should also continue living their lives. Some of us have less success than others but most of us do not give up. We continue, as careful as possible, as if we were walking in a minefield, placing one foot ahead of the other with caution, a lot of caution. Because in this topsy-turvy world we all find ourselves in, one minute we are in, the next minute we are out.I have been trying, extremely hard, to look for the positive in our daily lives. And there are many positive things, yet they get overshadowed by the many issues our country continues to face today. Things are changing, for sure but they are not changing fast enough, or the changes are not big enough and immediate that we can feel them or see them taking an effect on all of us.Do these memes make me feel good? Of course, they do, if nothing else for the time I am seeing them and sharing them. I mean, they are meant to be funnily ironic instead of dark premonitions of our future. Anyone taking them seriously is in trouble. But I do have to say that while ironic, such memes also carry a little bit of truth because they remind us of our present situation and also, they sort of prepared us for worse things to come. The memes served as a preventing mechanism,Either way, we are living. We are surviving. We are moving forward. We are waiting for the changes to come. We are looking at the window, stepping out the door, and running into the sunset.Seriously, sometimes I feel like Iʼm in a sci-fi series. In the first episode we are allStay safe, queeridos, and wear a facemask. I mean, really, it isnʼt that hard.By: Mary KhonWWW.ADELANTEMAGAZINE.COM | TO ADVERTISE IN ADELANTE MAGAZINE CALL 323-256-6639