The last photo, the last time

[This article belongs to La Matяioska, Verne's bi-weekly newsletter. If you want to subscribe, you can do it through this link and if you want to send us a message, you can write to us at lamatrioksa@verne.es].

Since I was little I have a habit of eating: I try to leave for the last bite what I like most about the plate. So, when I had steak with green beans for dinner, for example, I ate all the beans first and then enjoyed the steak. Or alternate, but always making sure I'd have a nice piece of steak left for the end. I keep doing it, although now I already like green beans. Not at every meal, of course, but I do try to make the last slice of pizza contain a little bit of each ingredient or at least the one I like best. As if it were the definitive bite: the slice of pizza has to be perfect, being the last.

Astrud said in a song (frankly rare, now that I think about it): “For every thing there is one time, which is the last (...) Since I have had this intuition, nothing happens to me enough times (...) Now I am making a collection of absolutely everything. And every time I brush, I ask myself: is this the last time I brush?

Fortunately, we are not the singer of Astrud and we do not go through life wondering if the things we do we do for the last time (beyond the slice of pizza). Have you given much thought during confinement the last time you did something or saw someone? I have found that my brain was tricking me into trying to remember the last time I stayed with some people. It has happened to other friends. In this case it was tricking me for good: it brought back memories of penultimate times (or previous) more fun or personal. He had even deleted some discussion.

I imagine that just as we have wrapped mystique many first times of things - although later you realize that almost everything is better with experience - we have also romanticized the endings and the last times, giving them unnecessary transcendence. And this time we have encountered many unprepared last times, without being aware that it was the last time in a life that would completely change.

The BBC has asked its readers to go to their mobile phone albums, retrieve their latest "normal life" photo and send it to them. Then he has selected a dozen of them among which there are weddings, soccer games, walks to school ... Prints of an old normality. On social networks, hundreds of people have shared theirs with the hashtag #lastnormalphoto. I invite you to take the test. What was your last “normal” photo? When did you do it and who appears? Was it a pose, an art photo, or something you didn't even remember photographing? Here are some of ours: there are crowds and lonely moments; images to keep and others doomed to be forgotten. And even a premonitory sugar.

ARCO, rice, coffee and 8-M.

WE HAVE BEEN WORKING ON ...

-The poster for this year's Madrid Book Fair is drawn in pen and embroidered with cotton thread . This is how the illustrator Nuria Riaza (Albacete, 1990) works, in charge of the poster for this edition. It is the fifth time in the history of the Fair that a woman has performed it. This year we will not see the Retiro park booths open until October 2.

-Six philosophical ideas to reflect on the pandemic . The job of the philosophers is to tease and "point out what must be destroyed so as not to repeat mistakes"

-Actress Hajar Brown: "When I put on my hijab I had to build my identity from the beginning . " Amira, her character in 'SKAM Spain', reflects the reality of a teenager who wears a hijab of her own choice

-A walk through the 'rebellious' plants that have taken to the streets during confinement . Botanical disseminator Aina S. Erice shares her findings on one of her first walks after the bull run. In addition to the delicious article about her walk, Aina has identified the photographs that our readers found in her own and sent us. These are some.

pic.twitter.com/bQUX0mTe3c

Says Aina S. Erice: in all the photos there is a plant that we pay little attention to: the spikelet (Hordeum cf. murinum), sister of the barley with which the beer is prepared (which ... uhm ... no, with this the thing does not go well).

In this case, the botanical disseminator is clear:
Wonderful mallow, yes! https://t.co/dfUgh4yW9B

“The great winged cypsels of that sphere look like a salsify (of the genus Tragopogon); leek leaf salsify (T. porrifolius) is an edible plant, much appreciated in places like France! ”, says the publisher https://t.co/rcAmxfDixF

… AND WE HAVE REALLY LIKE TO READ

-The definitive test for couples in these times ( The Lily , in English). I liked this article because it is real. Who trusts their partner so much that they can cut their hair? I am sure many people have had this dilemma in the past few weeks.

-What is happening with the right to abortion these weeks? ( Pikara Magazine ). Well, as every time we let our guard down, this right is being threatened in many countries under the excuse of confinement. This article explains it. Francisca García, from the Association of Accredited Clinics for the Interruption of Pregnancy (ACAIE) explains her position in this gallery (in eldiario.es ).

-The big reset . Here is the latest full issue of Yorokobu magazine. As good as ever, but in PDF format.

-The new masks on social networks and imbalances at home (Infolibre). In this interview-mail crossing-asynchronous conversation, Remedios Zafra analyzes within the confinement framework some of the topics he usually writes about: self-exploitation at work , the image we project on social networks and hyperconnection. This time, while we are locked up at home and when we have turned our living rooms into sets from which to zoom. Its headline: "We cannot go back to normal as before because it was terribly harmful"

Selection of the content and writing of La Matяioska: Mari Luz Peinado @mluzpeinado

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