Berlin: Frühling
Anonymous I
Travelling during coronavirus has been a natural selection process for making adventurous, creative, free-thinking friends. As I mentioned to a newly found quarantine buddy (an activist / media lawyer in training*), the travel ban has meant meeting many individuals doing what I'm doing; taking the opportunity of remote work to explore, move countries, discover new cultures. It has prevented others who are less willing to take risks or somewhat bend the rules from travelling, and has been easier to find people to share this unique experience with.
Anonymous II
We've spent the past twelve months struggling to swap lockdown in a familiar house for an unfamiliar one. Ironically, we've been able to travel because everything we would ordinarily travel for is shut. We've gone from fighting to leave home to fighting to return. We've ended up with closer friends both here and there, and are all the better for it.
Anonymous III**
I really am meaning to sit down and finish a reflective (self-aware, possibly more critical) commentary on the last few months. For a shut-down city, there's a remarkable amount of content. In fact, internal issues have thrived! All I can particularly muster at the moment, however, is to say: I miss Anonymous I & II so much. (And I find the necessity of their anonymity very funny). Spring seems to be heralding the end of this "Fever Dream" experience; increasingly, other friends are fleeing at the glimpse of freedom elsewhere. I will miss the madness. At a time where human encounters have meant so much more, and meeting a new person bleeds naturally into an entirely different weekend - unrestricted by the rigid diaries of a previous London life - it feels strange to be stumbling into the light of selective choice. My anonymous company have been kind, thoughtful and wise, and I will treasure this season. Not just through rose-tinted specs.
* Clearly, not me.
** Is me.
