Two Ends of a Sugarcane
Op-Ed
Lucky are those married couples who appreciate their connubial ties and don’t resent looking at each other 24/7, trying to enjoy every second of their secluded family life, turning it into an idyllic getaway from the regular daily routine, taking no notice of the deprivations brought about by the newly imposed curfew and quarantine, never feeling tired of one another’s constant presence, and seeking satisfaction only in available variables and solely by affordable means.
Aren’t they lucky to be living in the era of this global viral invasion, seemingly worse than the assault of those familiar cinematic aliens? What else could have given them a chance like this to voluntarily succumb to their re-burgeoning love affair?
At the same time, I pity those marital captives who have never wanted to spend unforeseen long hours together and are now compelled to tolerate each other’s company day in, day out. One can hardly imagine a stronger terminator of our corporeal immunity than our disheartening imagination, which carries enough power to eliminate the last vestiges of hope and the hardly scintillating light of happiness.
I deduce that of those two familial stands, rejecting hatred and inviting love seems to be the best healer of the day, no matter how miserable, hungry, thirsty, fearful, constrained, astonished and sickened we feel due to our mandatory solitude, which has totally dimmed our reality, temporary though it is. What a preposterous coronation of our existentiality!
But I don’t really care. Not because I have already lived my share of years and have bored myself to death with the motley palette of my lifelong experience; nor because I am fearless like an animal and intrepid like a medieval knight. No! I am just busy, very busy. That’s all! I am busier now than ever before. For instance: I am doing more classes online now than at any other time in the past; I am currently prepared to answer ten times as many questions of my students and disciples than they desired to ask even in the times of our physical interactions; I have assiduously dusted the once forsaken covers of about twenty bulky books I have always wanted to read through and never had time to embrace; I am more than poised to give a new impetus to a couple of linguistic projects I had stalled because of the shortage of time; I have not written to my dearest old friends in a long while and now I have profusely taken to my beloved epistolary genre of a private streak; in my salad years, as a young dreamer and romanticist I used to translate Georgian and English poetry back and forth and I have now revived my drooping poetic spirits to once again put my pen to this art of intrinsic magnificence; not to forget to mention, my balconies have never seen me workout so abundantly, but today they happen to be the witnesses of my sweating in pursuit of a vigorous lifestyle.
I also started brooding over my healthy diet, balanced out with the most salubrious ingredients ever, but this is not easy at all to afford, and still, I will probably go with it for as long as I continue making a living. And I do! Only, I do it online, toiling my guts and wits off over the internet. What else am I up to? Oh, it almost escaped my mind: I am making music by playing the accordion and refreshing my piano skills with the help of online lessons. On top of all that, I have always wanted to watch all the Oscar-winning movies, but this was practically impossible due to my incessant busyness, and here we go at last: I am enjoying a movie a day as a minimum and nothing will get in my way. Who should I thank for this exceptional souvenir? Of course Her Monstrous Excellency, as bittersweet as its time of advent has turned out to be. But we cannot expect both ends of a sugar cane to be sweet. The proverb is Chinese, by the way!
By Nugzar B. Ruhadze
Image source: PenWin/Getty Images