La Voz de Galicia – December 30, 2022 →
A few months ago, I was reading an article in The New York Times about the small daily rituals people have to be able to go on from day to day («The Little Rituals That Keep Us Going»). And even though it was an article that simply enumerated a selection of rituals sent by its readers, the truth is that at the moment, it made me think about which rituals were mine, and about what happened when I could not perform them. Suddenly, I began to notice them and to be more conscious of what they meant, and little by little I realized that without these rituals (sometimes completely ridiculous), I was not able to rise up to my little daily challenges in the same way I did when, for example, I went for a walk twice a day or called Maruxa another two times.
In these times in which we live, it is sometimes difficult to remember what it is that does us good and do it. There are moments where we get stuck in that other labyrinth of emotions that lead nowhere, and that perhaps we try to tamp down with stimuli only there only to catch our attention and not to help us or keep us company (the endless «scrolling» without purpose on social media, reality tv, trash tv). And then, instead of using that valuable free time to disconnect in a healthier way, less mundane, we end up worse off because in reality we are conscious that this is also not good for us.
Now that we close another complex year where uncertainty had definitely come to stay, where we will find a thousand excuses to say that that little while with the cell phone or with the television is helpful, one can’t stop thinking about the importance of these other, more human rituals that make life more bearable, that save our life daily.
