People vs. Places

Maki
5 dic 2020
3 Min. de lectura

At the start of the pandemic the question most frequently asked was “what will happen when things go back to normal”? Will it be the same? Better? Worse?

Everyone had a different view depending on where they stood.

We know what has changed and what “the new normal” looks like.

The new stuff is now well-engrained in our everyday lives. Working from home, online shopping, Zoom meetings, virtual parties and art showings or weddings with 15 guests, home-schooling and of course delivery of, well, mainly everything. Vaccine or no vaccine most of the new ways will become not only permanent but in time they will be fine-tuned and perfected as to become an essential part of our lives. Maybe not weddings; some will opt for larger parties and fancier venues although I would bet the ranch that the day of the destination über-wedding is over. So pre-Covid 19.

We now know what a world impossible to conjure 10 months ago looks like.

What we did not know was how we would act; maybe we were told when I was not listening. We were whistling down a well-trodden path at our own pace when wham! We were propelled forward at supersonic speed. We are most likely entering 2025 without realizing it. Of all the extraordinary happenings of what will go down in history as The Great Pandemic of 2020* the most surprising was the momentum created by the clashing of technology and the plague; now we are moving somewhere between the speed of sound and the speed of light.

“Intel engineers did a rough calculation of what would have happened had a 1971 Volskwagen improved at the same rate as microchips. Today, that Beetle would be able to go at three hundred thousand miles per hour. It would get two million miles per gallon of gas, and would cost 4 cents” (Thomas Friedman, ‘Thank you for being late’, 2016).

I know exactly how that Volkswagen feels.

I travelled 5 years in 10 months I can live on half of what I used to and I am probably worth 4 cents. I was someone who would board a plane at the drop of a hat. Once went from London to Madrid just for lunch and a couple of times flew into Lima for a 24-hour to visit my sick mum; was back at the office in Paris the next morning.

I went on holidays to idyllic places, with easy access. I would also often travel within my favorite cities window shopping and gallery sightseeing, walking in and out of museums and art shows, popping last minute for a night at the opera; eating whenever hungry. These things will not come back; at least not with the abandon we felt when striding confidently on the pavement, trusting anything was possible. Time has become the most precious commodity, one not to be squandered recklessly. What is more important, people or places? To go and see someone you miss terribly or to visit The Petronas? Yes one does exclude the other, because everything is finite and requires means and yes, time.

We need to stay on what truly matters. You may live your life never having walked the shores of the Nile –which by the way you can now do virtually- but somewhere there is laughter or gossip or wine that needs sharing.

I opt for people, and if they come with great places, so much the better. If not, tough.

With Trump leaving the WH the time of conspicuous consumption, dating back to the Reagan era -perfectly summoned by Malcolm Forbes who then coined the diktat: ‘He who dies with the most toys wins’ – comes to an end.

The richest man in Europe LVMH’s boss and luxury king Bernard Arnault has been the man who lost the most money this year in the whole world; time to put a stop to this nonsense.

Would you pay Tod’s 495 GBP for loafers that sell for 49 euros at Zara?

Of course not.

Amancio Ortega bet on that and in the lean vs. luxury market his brand is doing swimmingly. There’s less money to go around and people are changing spending habits. All of a sudden a 6k handbag looks pretty silly, ‘cause we’re are you gonna go, girl?

A new, crisp persona is coming out of the pandemic mess. It rides a bike, walks more, throws away less. It believes in taking a different route down a more-leveled path yet one not flat or less exciting; with loose and fluid chance encounters where every hour a gift is.

It walks lightly shedding its old rough and thick pre-Covid skin.

I am taking a shine to it.