Wriggling out of the COVID squeeze

 

Italy.  I feel that I’ve been trying to fit a round peg in a square hole my entire life. 

When I see Ruth in contrast to her sisters, I see what a strong and clear influence genes can have.  Her sisters inherit the WASP traits of their father.  Ruth is 100% Italian.  So much so, that a DNA search for relatives turned up her uncle, my brother, as her half brother!  Getting to know her Italian relatives seems to have been a revelation.  She found her round hole.

 

So, what would it be like to live among my blood relatives in Italy?  Would I find a more welcoming environment in the piedmont of my father’s roots, or the hot island climate of my mother’s. Where would this round peg fit most comfortably?

 

Thanks to COVID-19, satisfying this curious itch will be delayed.  Italy has the marvelous and unique (among EU) policy of welcoming home the children of their diasporas.  My 100% Italian blood guarantees me the right to apply for (and hopefully receive) Italian citizenship.  I have downloaded the forms, and gathered the necessary information ensuring my 100% pasta-affinity, right back to great-grandpa Pietro Anziano whom I will never know, because he never emigrated.  All I need is to sit before an Embassy administrator, turn over my paperwork, sign, fork over $300, and then voila! I can apply for an Italian passport and travel to Italy.  During the pandemic, Italy is closed to bearers of American passports.

 

The only hitch is, until the pandemic is over, the Embassy isn’t taking any appointments.

 

Well hey, you say, just wait a little longer and the dam will break. 

 

As 2020 wore on, psychologist and sociologists have increasingly sounded the alarm.  Sheltering in place is detrimental to your mental health.  You could go crazy, suicidal, spending too much time alone and without the warmth of human embrace.

 

Welcome to my world.  For the past three years I have lived alone here on this plateau, surrounded by cows and apples.  For a while at least, I had the companionship over the fence of a horse and a mule.  The farmer finally sold them off in the Fall.  I miss my buddies!  Now I see that it should not be such a surprise that my internal monologue has been growing more and more bizarre.  Thanks to the virus, my eyes have been opened and I am moved to action.  I have waited too long!!  While I further await the opening of my path to Italy, I am putting my house up for sale or rent.  This is a complicated process, because I must first gain ownership of the land my house sits on.  That process should keep me busy for a while. It's complicated.

 

The only better gift the pandemic could give me is death-by-virus.  But since I have extremely limited contact with other humans, at the supermarket, that’s not going to happen.  And there is your glimpse to how bizarre is my inner world.