In the current time it is communicated more often and with emphasis, what one misses everything. I also share this in part, I also miss many everyday things – but one must also be aware that it is not self-evident what we miss.
At the moment, people are missing more than they have in a long time. But we’re not talking about missing socks, energy on Monday morning or misplaced charging cables, which is a real pain. No, here it’s primarily things like celebrating, going out to eat and traveling – for those who can’t push forward business appointments in Dubai or vaccination training courses. Things that have enriched everyday life and often distracted from it. Encounters, small rewards, small experiences on a plate and big ones in new regions, countries or even continents. And sure, I join in the longing for it.
I also no longer want to miss: the down jacket that has accompanied me for years.
Experience or post material – what exactly is being missed?
I haven’t been able to experience anything at all in the last few months is something you hear or read again and again, especially in social media. It annoys me that “having experienced” is so often measured by whether you were able to post it. If you didn’t share the moment on Instagram, it didn’t happen, so to speak, it had no value. Such nonsense. When I spend time with my nieces or family, I put my phone aside. I just experience other, new things. Like cooking, for example. You can also do that with a person from another household. Then there are culinary experiences at home, travel is over a glass of wine – different is not the same as worse, just make the best of it!
And: How can I enjoy the time if I only look at everything through the lens. Do these people only go to the restaurant to be able to show something? To be able to prove an exciting everyday lifestyle? Is one only cool if one has also been to Dubai, the Maldives or Ibiza? Are Emirates or certain Insta-pools now the brand outfits of tomorrow?
Favorite look with glimmer of hope look.
Small as big
I find the development alarming. The smartphone is always on, everything is filmed. It’s so cool to see my nieces romping through the garden or park, trying their hand at soccer – they don’t care about displays at all. Of course, my sister takes pictures for proof – but doesn’t put any of them on the web. As a young family, the current situation and the lockdown hit her much harder than it did me. Swimming pools were the little ones’ favorite destination, without a daycare center, grandma, grandpa and company are playing relay races, and their physical condition has long been overstretched. The little ones also miss their friends from kindergarten, which is another art of explaining the situation to them in a way they can understand. And one thing is also clear: With what we miss – the people behind the things we miss much more. They miss not only guests and customers, but also backing and support from above. That also needs to be mentioned.
Missing in the picture only so slowly the hairdresser. Very slowly.
Missing, then appreciation
But I think you still miss on a high level there. Because even if everything is open and possible again, a lot of things will remain closed and impossible for people out there, because they simply can’t afford it and have to manage a month’s food with the money we spend on a restaurant visit. And when people in public digital life talk about regular vacations in the Maldives as if you were going to Austria for a quick trip to a hut, it just annoys me because the appreciation and the classification as non-self-evident has completely disappeared.
These are all the things that are missed: not a matter of course. Perhaps in the near future we will be more aware of the fact that what is desirable is not caviar, a Rolex or a place on Love Island, but entry to a bar or a wellness hotel in South Tyrol.
If I can still condemn me with nem cheese casserole and wine this year in a hut, I would celebrate that already. With charging cable and socks or without and gladly also on Mondays.
