The post-Covid World doesn't seem so appealing to me anymore. Too similar to the world before. I dream of another world: the "world beyond post-Covid".

1. The Dordogne valley, somewhere in Corrèze...
THE POST-COVID WORLD
Having lost my illusions about the post-Covid world
(greener, more united, more human), I dream of another world:
the "world beyond Post-Covid"
OLD HABITS
COME BACK QUICKLY
Spring 2020. Last live report in Alsace, on a Saturday. (The alert has been sounded, the
supermarkets are taken by storm, the schools will close on the following Monday.)
Repatriation of my daughter who is at the end of the world. (We are unsure how
things will turn out...) My mother can't stand being locked in her room after she went
to a restaurant whose owner tested positive after a trip to Spain. I disinfect the door
handles two or three times a day, wash my laundry and my dishes at 60 degrees.
Later, when masks have been officially proven useful and their use recommended,
then mandatory, I decide to sew a series of masks out of vintage fabrics. I even
embellish some of them with embroidery, trying to make this accessory acceptable for
everyday life. I also use a lavender scented sanitizer that makes me dream of
Provence. In short, I adapt myself...
End of May 2021. Fully vaccinated, I’ve already booked flights to a Greek island where
I will spend some time with my daughter this summer. (An island reassures me. How
silly!) I’ve stopped disinfecting doorknobs and light switches. I'm back to washing my
clothes at 30 and using the economy program on my dishwasher.

2. A NOT SO BAD «DURING»
I’m happy to have been invited to several parties in the past few months. Even
though social distancing – how awful is that expression by the way! – quickly became
a foreign concept. I even ate at a restaurant. Hidden behind a screen in a country inn.
A delicious beef tenderloin unsuitable for takeaway. A usual evening, like before.
Cheerful.
By this time, I had reluctantly stopped wearing handmade masks (I had finally
accepted that they didn't provide enough protection and invested instead in rainbow-
colored RII masks found in a specialized store – yes, they do exist – in Lausanne.)
AN AFTER ALMOST
LIKE BEFORE
The post-Covid world doesn't seem so appealing to me anymore. I imagine it too
similar to the world before.
True, there are fewer planes in the sky. And many people have discovered
teleworking. Not always easy at the beginning, but one gets used to it. We then
imagine a future with less car traffic during opening and closing office hours. On the
other hand, more and more vans will be crossing the country with packages ordered
online, sometimes returned and reordered. Streaming consumption is exploding and,
as everyone knows by now, clicking is not so clean.
All things considered, frankly, what have we gained? More solidarity? No.
More equality? No. On the contrary. Some people have chosen to leave the city for
the country. Understandably! Living in Paris in a period of lockdown, with the curfew
and the even more present misery, is rather dull.
A SWEET DREAM OF
AFTER. ELSEWHERE
I catch myself dreaming of a more distant future. Elsewhere. My dreams take me to
the Dordogne valley, on a sunny hillside with a flowing spring. (Clean water will surely
be, like clean air, the luxury of tomorrow. The place seems therefore well chosen.)
A small positive energy house. Photovoltaic, with a heat pump, and so on. Everything I
need to live my wild life with a maximum of autonomy and a minimum of comfort. A
vegetable garden and a greenhouse to provide, as much as possible, for my food
needs. The nature of Corrèze is generous, with plenty of mushrooms and chestnuts in
the forests and fish in the river.
"Sylvie is a dreamer", my mother used to say about me. I dream, yes, and so what?
Sylvie Castagné
Mai 2021