2023. Happy new year. It only took me 5 months and 5 days of procrastination to come back to this. I’ve been staring at my All Pints Considered bookmark on my bookmark bar every day since and then sheepishly switching to Youtube or back down to my phone mindlessly scrolling Instagram. It all comes into perspective when you put a timestamp on it. But, I’m here now. I’ve built up enough strength and determination to put words on screen. I’ve taken the first step! So, let’s get into it.

Yesterday, I rode my bike into town to return a coat I bought in early December from Penneys off of O’Connell Street, hoping it was still returnable. Luckily, unbeknownst to me, they extended their return policy for Christmas and I got my €30 back. Next, I rode over to the AIB on Capel Street to deposit a larger sum of cash which then proceeded to get eaten by the machine. This prompted me to have to fill out an incident form and wait until Monday wherein I was told I might receive the money in my account. Unfazed, I walked down the street and strolled through the Turkish shop looking for nothing in particular. I often meander through shops thinking of all the things I would buy if I wanted to and to get a bit of creative motivation. Feeling gluttonous I cycled over to Di Fontaines for a big New York slice of pepperoni with jalapeños. But, while locking up my bike a used copy of a Farside book in the Oxfam window caught my eye and drew me in to have a look. I scoffed at the price, €8, but the woman assured me that if I scanned the barcode I would surely find it for more than that. It was a collector’s item, after all. I entertained her, and bought the Farside book along with a book of short-story fiction called “The Decameron Project.” The total being over €10 entitled me to a free pair of sunglasses, which she graciously offered to become my personal stylist to pick out the pair that suited me best. Two books and a pair of sunglasses later I found myself enjoying my pizza while listening to the book “The More of Less” Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own. I was trying out the whole Blinkist phenomenon. Not sure if I’m a fan. I decided to ride over to another, better AIB branch to get some of my other affairs in order before finally stopping at the Asian Market to get probably the most integral item of my journey, Lao Gan Ma crispy chilli oil. My crack, if you will. With my little Osprey daypack full to the brim, I cycled home.

This is a menial but magical journey I would’ve maybe taken for granted over 3 years earlier. Things like riding my bike anywhere I wanted to, shopping in stores, browsing charity shops, eating indoors, and shaking someone’s hand. The basics of being that just stopped for more than 2 years. I don’t want to dwell on it too much but it’s definitely good for me to think about it deeply on an infrequent level, in order to jump-start that “don’t wait” procrastinating attitude.

The book I bought, “The Decameron Project: 29 Stories from the Pandemic” plays off of a book by the same title (“The Decameron”) written in the 14th century by 10 young people quarantined from the black plague in Florence, Italy. In the Introduction Rivka Galchen does a good job of setting the scene and explains the lessons learned by those young people nearly 700 years earlier:

“… having laughed and cried and imagined new rules for living altogether, they were then able to finally see the present, and think of the future. The novelle of their days away made the novelle of their world, at least briefly, vivid again.”

It’s a testament to how powerful and resilient we are as humans if we choose to be. But, it shouldn’t take a plague or pandemic to push us to be creative. It’s something we should discover, new, each and every day. Galchen goes on to finish the Introduction with a little stoic wisdom that I very much appreciated:

“Memento mori - remember that you must die - is a worthy and necessary message for ordinary times when you might forget. Memento vivere - remember that you must live - is the message of The Decameron.”

After reading “The Decameron Project” I am definitely going to read its predecessor “The Decameron” to remind myself that I must continue to create when times feel tough or monotonous. After all, we don’t need a large catastrophic life event to become resilient but it sure does help us appreciate the lives we live under ordinary circumstances. Wake up each day, if you are fortunate enough to do so, and find that zest for life but, let death’s ominous shadow follow you, pushing you to live every day to its fullest potential.