Empty City

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit every area of our life. A scene that we are living in reality feels like something we have seen in an apocalyptic movie. The world is experiencing a great deal of fear, distrust and despair. As a parent, I always tell my kids and her friends to love people around them and to live their dreams. But in the current situation, people’s nearness and their body temperature become scary rather than grateful. My daughter and I went into a city one day to donate her hair that she had grown for 3 years. She wanted to give away to a child cancer patient of her age, saying that her hair would grow again. Her eyes were glowing as picturing in her mind that a child patient wouldn’t feel any shame with the gifted hair. The kid’s bright smile reminded me that what we ‘share’ embraces someone’s ‘shame’. An empty city. An empty subway. Distance among people, both visible and invisible. But I believe that the world is still hopeful, as children’s laughter still fills the city. Someday soon we will be all back to normal. Humans are resilient in crisis.