JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

The Milkmaid by Vermeer. Reason to live: to see all the Vermeers in museums around the world. (There aren’t many.)

On Friday morning I expected silence, but my neighborhood sounded the way it always does—cars and buses, tricycles, voices, music. I looked out the window and people were standing close to each other. Good luck to whoever has to explain social distancing: Filipinos like togetherness, i.e. getting in your face. You could be standing by yourself in a vast empty field, and someone will appear and stand right next to you.

(Yes, social distancing is a privilege in a country where people have to live at close quarters and cram into inadequate public transportation. Hence non-existence of personal space.)

Lockdown officially starts today, the Ides of March. As there are many exemptions (cargo trucks, commuters), the proper term is “lockdown”. When this is over and people complain that all the drastic measures to contain the virus were for nothing because there weren’t many casualties anyway, that’s when we will know that those same measures worked. When we get there, we can joke that the pandemic was a plot hatched by manufacturers of rubbing alcohol, hand sanitizer and multivitamins to sell their products. For now, it’s probably best to act as if you already have the virus (and not be an asshole who spreads it).

True, my regular life is pretty much like lockdown. I stay home and read, write, watch videos and serve my feline masters. I go out for walks, supplies, chores. Most Fridays I stay home anyway to avoid the pestilential traffic. This pandemic will ravage the world economy, but it’s already lessening road traffic and carbon emissions. Might it avert climate change? Friday I went out only to feed the building cats and to hand over a package (I sell books and zines) to a delivery person—while wearing gloves and keeping a one-meter distance from the Grab rider, which required stepping back as in some awkward cha-cha.

Strange to hear of a planned curfew and, despite having lived through martial law, approve. Something has to be done to curb the extremely social habits of Pinoys. I seriously doubt that social distancing can be enforced—we’ll have to do it for ourselves. People rail, and have plenty of reason to rail, about official ineptitude, but waging war with trolls is only useful if it keeps you at home. Stress will lower your immunity to the virus. Social media will keep us sane in isolation, when it’s not driving us nuts. Of course we need news updates, but not minute-by-minute. When there are no fresh updates, the space is filled with panic, conspiracy theories, pontificating, self-proclaimed authorities and pointless arguments. Spare yourself.

Idea for a T-shirt: Humans are the virus.

The danger of holing up at home is not boredom, but atrophy. I need vitamin D sunlight and 8,000 steps a day, or I turn into an anxious, depressive blob. Yesterday I had lunch with friends—four people spread out across two tables—and then we walked around the mostly empty business district. I suggested stopping at the supermarket at Landmark for cans of tuna, but there were long lines at checkout so we walked on. We ended up at Fully Booked for more books, because Crash Landing on You on Netflix is not going to keep me occupied. (I’ve been hounding the bookstore to offer a quick book delivery service.) 10,000 steps later we were at Ikomai, where I dropped off kibble for the white cat and we had an early dinner. A very early dinner, as the restaurant was closing at 7pm.

During martial law, people got around curfew restrictions by having overnight house parties. Not a good idea. As for dating apps, here’s an additional requirement: You had better be worth the risk of contracting covid-19.

While looking at my newsfeeds, I came upon “Vermeer” by Wislawa Szymborska.

As long as the woman from Rijksmuseum
in painted silence and concentration
day after day pours milk
from the jug to the bowl,
the World does not deserve
the end of the world.

Later.