A Cubist summer and embracing the word “freedom”

A few days ago Federal Councillor Karin Keller-Sutter pronounced an emblematic phrase, with a strong political connotation on the difficult period we are experiencing: ‘During this crisis, the Swiss are understanding how important the value of free movement is: the freedom to be able to see friends and relatives across borders, to be able to travel freely beyond our borders’.

Words in response to a question posed to the vote of 27 September was next on the initiative - for the limitation and which effectively photograph the period of confinement, almost of imprisonment, that we are all going through and undergoing despite the partial, longed for reopening.

There is talk of freedom, we feel as if somehow something has been denied and taken away from us and which we may struggle to regain, although phase two has lifted the efforts and constraints of the most serious and acute period of the pandemic. Today, despite the progress, we still do not feel completely at ease: the enemy, we are so rightly reminded of, remains in ambush. The health crisis is not behind us and the economic repercussions of the current state of need are already there for all to see and will remain so in the months and perhaps years to come. But it is true that the constantly improving health situation is rekindling our imagination and our human desires for freedom, taking a little away from the one concern and the only topic of discussion for two abundant months now.

Although slowly, other thoughts are making headway in our minds: naturally, the priority of health remains first (the pandemic has only heightened a concern that has actually always been present, that of the well-being of our loved ones) but today, with the businesses and restaurants that have raised the shutters, we must look ahead with a little more optimism.

The latest health reports are like a refreshing caress of sun in the frost that has accompanied us since the beginning of March and we have even begun to think about the summer which has been influenced by the coronavirus along with the word “holiday” - once the great fear has passed will yet again be easy to say or even to define. What we will do? And how? The idea of a ‘good season’ takes shape, but it is an unusual form, like an abstract painting to be interpreted. OR, if you want, it will be a somewhat Cubist summer, like those Picasso’s where the features of the face “don’t come back”, without betraying the spirit of the portrayed subject. Of course, the uncertainties and limitations of the case weigh on the general picture. Will we be able to make a trip, even a short one, or will we stay at home, discovering forgotten or unknown corners of our territory? Will we have the courage to move south and the desire to test the “aseptic” beach, the one with Plexiglas to divide the sunbeds and the lifeguards in masks to time the time of a dip in the water? And again: how will we move? By car - the vehicle today as today far safer, with the risk of finding yourself in line, trapped in an infinite construction site - or by plane, if you can ever? You can only really fantasise about our summer, which is like a stray - this is a certainty - of all the great events - yes, the crowded squares are now a faded memory, the postcard image of a world that no longer exists at this time, hidden by an incomprehensible tsunami and anxiously awaiting a new normalcy, which we hope will not focus on social distance. and on the terror of a neighbour’s sneeze.

For us throughout Ticino the return a summer of freedom awaits us, a vacation in many cases means Italy, one of the countries most marked by the scourge of the virus. An Italy that has just launched a series of measures that are intended to normalise internal circulation, the reopening of commercial activities and, above all, borders. Prime Minister Conte expressed his intention to reopen the borders from June 3 to all citizens of the Schengen area without distinctions, without quarantine and without self-certification. Now we will see in what ways this decision will be implemented, hopefully in harmony with Switzerland. Even this ‘uncertainty in the south’, no less than other surreal events, in any case makes us feel more fragile, smaller, more limited in movement: and increasingly aware of the true meaning of the word freedom.