Celebrations with coronavirus in the country of soccer
Sunday
May 2020.
Brazil. Rio de Janeiro.
Countless deaths by covid-19. Countless lives lost every minute.
Even if it were just one, it would already be a tragedy. Every life counts. And it is not in dollars or euros.
Masked numbers. Complacent society.
Encouragement from the president and professional politicians from almost all parties to get us back to normal life. How much is your life worth?
Quarantine.
For those who stick to it.
Which, where I live, is a small minority. Not here.
Not in Barra da Tijuca, a purgatory wonder city of beauty and chaos.
The beaches today (and for the past 8 weeks) are packed.
A lot of people on the boardwalk walking, running, cycling, skating, holding hands, taking their children without masks to catch the sun, walk.
Many surfers, stand up paddlers, many people running, exercising on the edge of the gym. Drinking coconut water in the open trailers.
I am home and I only leave when it is strictly necessary.
It is 5:40 pm and I hear a shout from neighboring buildings.
I turn down TV’s volume. Lots of screams in several apartments around.
Lots of shouting from neighboring buildings.
What is happening?
I turn off the music. I turn on the TV.
I watch a news channel. Another news channel. Nothing new.
Top news sites? Nothing new.
Is something serious going on?
I put it on the channel with the highest audience on Brazilian open TV.
A soccer game is being broadcast.
Are soccer games back and I didn’t know?
Damn, so the games are back already?
Fireworks.
More screams. Lots of people shouting.
Now goal screams.
What do you mean (WTF), people?
No, there is no live game.
It is a replay of a Flamengo soccer game, from November 2019, on the largest open TV channel in Brazil.
I look puzzled at the TV and even more puzzled out the window.
I turn off the TV trying to process.
Silence for 3 minutes.
New screams, new fireworks.
New horns and vuvuzelas.
Yes, that’s right!
Screams, bugles, fireworks in droves.
I turn on the TV again. It was (in November 2019 and now) another Flamengo goal.
The celebration is live.
The game (the replay) is over.
Flamengo is (was) champion. Again?
More celebrations in the neighborhood.
More bugles. More fires. More vuvuzelas.
Let’s celebrate?
The world and Brazil are celebrating.
It’s love? Is it passion?
Is it the height of fanaticism?
Is it the escape from reality?
Is it a parallel reality?
All together and mixed up? At the same time?
Maybe we really have a lot to celebrate.
The world and Brazil must be celebrating.
I do not know.
Don’t ask me to analyze this now.
I feel shocked.
I feel unable to understand or do in-depth analysis. These will be for a later time. I can’t do it now.
I cannot.
I just need to express what I think. What I feel.
I feel.
Very much.
Really much.