Social health

I try not to become disconnected from new ways of life, especially because I speak the same language as my students, and I keep my social networks fairly active (with long periods of inactivity). Now that I've sat down to write, I've noticed that the few downtimes I've had have been occupied by the impersonal, instinctive tendency to update. he moved No final.

My Facebook and Instagram never expire (thank God, I don't dare do any more). I also made a habit of updating the inbox of three email accounts and visiting my bank balance (not that I was… mediator) through application, as if this is why zeros grow to the right. Can you imagine?

Let's get back to networking. During the pandemic (an episode that affected a few and killed thousands) we have made excessive use of these digital media that were intended to teach us how to cook or make macramé (I tried both, and did not get good results with either). There were also those who ventured into hidden passions such as balcony or porch plants and homemade salves.

During this confinement, and the subsequent return to normalcy, our mental health took a hit, and some of us are still today struggling to sort out the consequences of that incident, as well as those we were carrying, along with those we carry now. Added every day. . I am proud to hear my young students talking about mental health and accepting what others have hidden in the past. It is undoubtedly an achievement that opens the way to continue focusing on a problem that continues to add eleven suicides every day in our country.

Listen to other people's conversations

I must admit that I listen to other people's conversations, and if they seem interesting to me, I try by all means to be a part of them. When I say interesting, don't think about theories or books or music, but about the everyday tasks that structure our lives.

I have had a neighbor for seven years, and I love him. He's a lovely man, with an imagination that I envy. Today he was talking to his grandfather while I was hanging clothes just one floor above them, in a town where the noise is not noise, but the giggling of partridges and some barking at the wrong time. Sergio is very nervous, he never stops talking and starts conversations as long as you don't leave him alone while he plays with a scooter that is missing a wheel. Today I was the one who, as I was putting on the last pair of socks with two fluorescent clothespins, subtly asked him what it felt like to have plants that couldn't take care of themselves. While he was watering (excessively) the black beardless soil, he told his grandfather that the plants had to be taken care of every day because they couldn't do it on their own, and they couldn't take care of themselves. Sergio explained to me, without much fuss and quiet, that plants cannot be beautiful, they cannot use nail polish or visit the hairdresser.

Smartphones also listen to other people's conversations. Now, sitting at my work desk, with my big toe serving as a springboard for a bygone present in a digital world, the (terrible) virtual self-care party has begun.

Social experiment. Put #selfcare and #mentalhealth in the social media magnifying glass at the top right of your screen. The first ten images have pastel colors. In which messages are collected, some choose the brave scarlet colors (what happened to the cowardly colors and what are they), and others emphasize that your safety is above all else: “Say, even if it hurts them,” he says. It seems that the result does not matter, what is important is that you take care of yourself. And I hit the circular whip again to update the content.

Caring is the action of protecting or monitoring others.

While men perpetuate this concept, under the cloak of masculinity understood as physical strength and masculinity based on pheromones and challenges (self-care to win others over), women do so surrounded by pastel colors and tanned brown skin in November. Taking care of yourself is like paying for specialized beauty treatments and running off to treat yourself.

Rarely has a prefix seemed to me so terroristic and inhumane due to its misuse and meaning. Patronage: from Latin cogitatus 'belief'. It refers to “thinking about the other,” and thus caring for someone. Likewise, caring is the act of protecting or monitoring others. Prefixes must be used from a historical perspective (like many other important things), while maintaining the meaning of the word as it fits together in order to survive. They should be prohibited from owning their own entity. It was never the case that the meaning of the new word that emerged was constructed by those who, at this moment in history, took relativity as their justification. after Popular topics From my social networks, it became clear that for this group of outspoken people, what they are sharing (and passing on) is mental health. What is the audacity of ignorance, how courageous are those without knowledge, and how far they are always from knowledge.

Maybe awareness should be not just knowing where our right big toe is when someone reminds us that we have it, but also knowing that we need it ourselves. Surviving and surviving since our first human forms we have not been able to do it alone. In order for society to continue the process of change for which it is itself and also responsible, it may be necessary to restructure the perspective, and also start talking about social health. And please, this time let us not dare with inventions like “social media”, because there are things we cannot do alone.