Musings

By Netnet Camomot .

READING books as a stay-home strategy is good for the bookworm a.k.a. moi who kept buying books without reading them.

Seeing these books now as they gather dust inside cabinets makes me wonder if my gut instinct knew there would be a pandemic in the future and that’s the reason it was always telling me to buy books.

Each time I was at the mall B.C. (Before Coronavirus), I would always drop by a bookstore and browse around. I wrote about this before, that if a book’s first paragraph is interesting, most probably I’d buy it. Although sometimes an author’s name could be enough to convince me it’s a good read. For example, Erma Bombeck.

For other authors, I’d read the first paragraph, look for another paragraph in the middle chapters, read the blurb on the back cover—my book-buying SOP (standard operating procedure). Much unlike the way I eat which doesn’t have any SOP at all as my taste buds jump from dessert to main course to appetizer.

Since I took the time to choose these books that I have here with me now, it’s expected that they’re the kind that I want to read. But I can’t keep them all according to Marie Kondo whose decluttering advice is to keep only 30 books, an advice that alarmed bookworms worldwide. I guess it’s safe to conclude that Kondo is not a bookworm because only a bookworm can understand a library filled with hundreds of unread books.

Reading a book takes time. Especially in B.C. days when I had people to see, places to go. Sometimes I’d bring a book in my luggage, hoping to read it while in between the places-to-go. But then these places happened to have bookstores where I bought more books, and after a long day of walking and visiting tourist spots, I’d be too tired to read anything.

The quarantine has given me the time to read, to declutter, and to realize what’s truly essential. B.C., I was already learning lessons on toxicity—toxic activities, toxic people—and how to avoid them, although in one particular instance, it was the toxic people who chose to drop me. I offered help and they rejected my help. Haha! “Good riddance!” echoed resoundingly from both sides.

Months ago, a friend called me up and our topic was this little business transaction we had—and still have. Despite the pandemic, it has been business as usual for us, otherwise, there would be no food on the table. Simbako lang! After we confided our respective woes to each other, she said, Our one and only goal now is to survive.

Yes, I included her advice in a previous column, and I’m writing about it again now as some people are still in denial about the existence of Covid. Or if they do know that Covid is here to stay for a while, they tend to ignore the risks.

Imagine having dinner tonight with people outside of your immediate household. It doesn’t have to be a party. It could be a simple dinner with friends. Or a friend, that one friend you’ve been missing so much, and you can finally have this dinner now that Cagayan de Oro’s Covid cases are decreasing. Imagine this, too: Five days later, you’re having what you suspect are Covid symptoms.

Better yet, imagine the five-days-later first before imagining tonight’s dinner with the friend. If that will still push you to have that dinner, well, you’re truly the immortal one.

People who have continued behaving like it’s the old normal may taunt you for staying home. They refuse to believe that you’re saving lives by staying home. They tease you that in the end you’ll be the only one left Covid-free once the pandemic is over. They make “Covid-free” sound like it’s the saddest thing in the world. Is it?

Yes, life goes on. But that doesn’t mean you have to party like there’s no tomorrow since life can also go on by staying home and keeping yourself and your immediate household safe and healthy. If you have survived so far, that means your life has managed to go on. Puera buyag.

I’m now reading Amy Tan’s “The Opposite of Fate” which she describes as “musings on my life.”

So, what’s the opposite of fate? Hmmm. Faith? That seems to be part of Tan’s musings but since I’m still on page 94, let’s see if the remaining 304 pages will resonate the same thought.