By: Gabriela Yareliz
Greetings from the studio. I did venture out today, to the basement, to take down my recycling. Yes, crisis is no reason to stop recycling. I was met by an old woman huddled in the corner of the elevator. (There are no stairs to the basement). She was clutching a scarf to her mouth.
My first thought was, Lady, do you need me to step out? She looked at me, eyes peering over the scarf and from underneath her baseball cap. “I don’t want to get sick. I am not sick, I promise. I hope you aren’t either.”
At this, I just smiled at her, took a deep breath and pressed the elevator button with my key— “I don’t think I am sick either.” The doors closed and locked us in.
Here is the deal, in NYC, even something as simple as taking down your recycling requires the touching of common surfaces. Our mailboxes, our elevators and buttons, the common entry door handles— there is no escaping our shared terrain.
It’s crazy how the same thing that comforts us, (the company of others), can also fill us with fear.
My day was filled with Zoom meetings. I refuse to turn the video on. I am not in the mood to be seen, just heard. Typical of me. I have seen the interiors of half of my colleagues apartments, their cute kids and their sleeping cats. I have also discovered some of them wear glasses.
God bless the power of the mute button. We need to learn to mute certain things in life the way we do in Zoom.
The rain and wind beat down against my window, today. I know it doesn’t work this way, but I think we are all secretly praying, each little face in each little window, that the rain wash away all our fears.
GABRIELA YARELIZ 