Life of Others

The new confinement forced us again to have to stay at home. Social need, however, compels us to look outside the four walls and thus build our view of the world from the window - that of some wider and more diverse than that of others. Involuntarily and unusually we become voyeurs of the lives of others while, and without knowing it, we are also the target of distant voyeurism. We now know, from the restless and thoughtful cigarette that he usually comes to smoke at the window after dinner, that the pandemic is being stepmother to the neighbor in front, and that the cat next door comes every morning to sunbathe unconcernedly. And we are also happy when we see that the child with a terrace on the ground floor, although still far away, is each day and with each shot getting closer to realizing his dream of being a football player. Conversely, the each small details and idiosyncrasies give meaning to the passing of hours as if we came into existence only when and while observed. We meddle in such a way that, from our parapet, the lives of others become, more than also, ours and we take their repeated daily steps as ours. I don't know any of my neighbors from the front or from the side. Had I known them and I wouldn't know who they are.