If we didn’t add a leap day on February 29 almost every four years…our time reckoning would slowly drift apart from the tropical year and get increasingly out of sync with the seasons. Leap days fix that error by giving Earth the additional time it needs to complete a full circle around the Sun.
timeanddate
Even if we take today’s date out of the equation, February has ripened into a strange month.
It’s an understatement to say that most of the world is currently unified in boundary-spanning upheaval. COVID-19 has become Pee-Wee’s secret word, and I am loath to give it further mention because the topic permeates every media outlet in every language. It’s the latest bad news in a world that’s already got too much pre-existing bad news. Even if I never get this nasty strain of flu, I feel the toxic effect of its virulence.
Lavare le mani frequentemente con acqua e sapone o usando soluzioni alcoliche.
This week I dramatically expanded my vocabulary of useful Italian medical terms: quarantena, infettivologi, tamponi, mascherina, guerisci. I see this as a silver lining to all of the virus talk circulating the country. But the negativity has certainly been amplified as I’ve fielded texts from friends seeking updates for how things are in Rome. To be honest, life looks and feels pretty much the same. If you just switch off the TV, radio and (ha ha) smartphone, you might forget that CDC Warning Level 3 is a thing. I did, however, walk past a man washing his hands at a nasone today; he followed up by sprinkling his palms with a bottle of hand sanitizer. People are worried.
Le mascherine non servono nulla ai sani.
Life is a balancing act where we must greet an onslaught of highly individualized and often random events that are both invigorating and energy draining. Try as you might to avoid the peril, sometimes things crop up and can’t be avoided. This becomes painfully clear in adulthood—and a simple face mask will not save you the nasty stuff. For me this week felt extra challenging as I fought a cold that left me operating at 45% capacity. Each morning I craved only additional sleep, and the coffee machine became my altar for motivation. Life doesn’t stop for personal annoyance, so I just ground through each day—just like everyone else around me. Pull out the hand sanitizer, cough into my elbow. And then pretend as though I was operating with a clear brain despite the Mucinex. Sanitize again.
Mantieni una certa distanza – almeno due metri – dalle altre persone.
Last night I was at my computer, simultaneously watching an Italian movie and also looking up all the words I didn’t know. It was my reward for making it through the week. But then I stopped watching when an email from a good friend came into my inbox. He’s a former shipmate with whom I qualified as a Surface Warfare Officer a long, long time ago. He’s one of those people who is very real about the world, but at the same time can always maintain an upbeat outlook. I don’t know how he does it—but I am always grateful when he drops back into my orbit.
We ended up chatting on the phone, and while he caught me up on some grave difficulties in his own life, he wasn’t calling to simply share bad news. For no self-serving reason, he was calling because he wanted to check in on me. Throughout our talk he managed to demonstrate the upside of what was largely a negative situation in the world. He even encouraged me to do a few good things for myself that I had been putting off. In the very best of ways, he is a rare person who knows when not to maintain a distance. He firmly believes that investment in others is what will get all of us through life’s more challenging moments.
Aiutiamoci l’uno con l’altro e insieme ce la faremo
This morning I woke up and felt physically better than I had in days. My energy level still isn’t the best, but I knew I was on the road to recovery. I started the day by torturing my Italian teacher during our 90-minute class, and then I looked forward to a weekend with no set program. It was a sunny day, so I went outdoors to explore a new neighborhood. I made my way for the tram stop and hopped onto the first one that arrived. I was thrilled that I had caught the right line and that it would bring me straight to where I wanted to go. Then we started to move. I realized that I was now going in the exact wrong direction. I sighed to myself. Standard Megan ops. I didn’t try to get off at the next stop.
I decided that eventually I would leave the tram, and somewhere I would still find something interesting to do. The next time I looked up at my surroundings, I saw that we were in front of Rome’s National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art. It’s a place I have not yet visited, as usually there is a line going down the steps and towards the street. School field trips. Crowds of people all jockeying for position in front of the artwork. But now, on this day of international pestilence, there was no one on the stairs at all. I hopped off the tram.
My visit to the museum could not have been better. I am no expert in art, but this facility on the border of Villa Borghese offered a fantastic combination of pieces that helped my adult brain revert to something a more malleable. And I had the place to myself. A wander through the various exhibits made me wonder why this place was not more well known. Kind of like my phone call the previous night, I exited with a sense of renewal.
Venite tranquillamente.
Walking back home, I crossed the street in order to cut through Villa Borghese. The park was alive with people. As I passed the Temple of Asclepius and watched rowboats cut circles in the surrounding water, I made my way toward Piazza di Siena. In exiting this smaller garden area, there’s a low hanging chain that closes the space off to the dreaded Bici Pincio bumping around the park. On the chain sat a couple of kids, waiting, no doubt, for their snails of genitori to catch up with them. I watched as they swayed easily on the chain. I thought about how I used to do such things when I was small. I also thought about how now I would never do this for fear of losing my balance, falling backwards, and bruising my body in a ridiculous way that would leave my body smarting for days on end.
As soon as I thought I bought this I wondered to myself when I become so ancient. Then I laughed and declared that to be an adult in this world is kind of ridiculous. So many rules, dangers and body aches. I walked past the boys and coughed into my elbow.
February was kinda tough, but it’s still my experience that the unpremeditated moments of escapism and small-scale rescue really do make a big difference. And while illness is just about the worst fucking thing—be it pancreatic cancer, COPD or whatever else is circling the globe—I find that it’s important not to get completely bogged down in the hard stuff. That’s why we have things like art, and friendship, and places where kids do easy things that help us to remember perspective. On this anno bisestile I am grateful for moments of misdirection that serve to put everything back into balance. At least for a little while.