The return of traffic | The Press

Morning coffee. You read The Press. On the front page, the tragedy of Texas, the summer in 20 films, reduced Ministry examinations. Boisvert: “The conservative drift of Quebec nationalism”. There is Journet, too: “The right according to Duhaime”. You are late. You will finish this noon. On the way to the office.

On the radio, Eugénie Lépine-Blondeau loves the sequel to Top Gun. It makes you want to go see it. But above all, it makes you want to fly a fighter plane, rather than your auto-shave-clods. It’s stuck on Décarie. Big cap. There must be an accident. You stretch your neck. No accident in sight. There has to be something. It is not normal.

You honk your horn. Suddenly a distracted person was just waiting to get his horn honked to hit the gas. No. It’s not that. It’s never that. But you always honk, just in case. Stillness remains. You look at the time. The boss won’t be happy. You start pumping a little. The line of cars next to it seems to be moving faster than yours. You try to slip in. Big Ram won’t let you through. Lesson ! You tense up. Second trial. You cut the Tercel. She honks. The pissed off! It gets on your nerves so much, people who honk.

At least you’re in the fastest line… Which suddenly stops moving. Well then ! The queue you just left is the fastest now. Seal ! It’s a conspiracy ! It’s Elon Musk with his GPS in the sky fooling you.

What is happening ? You haven’t experienced such a traffic jam for at least, what? For at least two years. And then it comes back to you. Nothing special is happening today. What is happening today is normality. Your normalcy. Your daily life of yesteryear. It was the last two years that were special. With no cars on the roads. With no employees in the offices. With COVID.

It’s crazy how quickly we forgot that one. 1^er last January, when the alarm on your phone was ringing loudly to prevent you from going out, you would have been told that, a few weeks later, the pandemic would no longer be in the headlines and that the path would be blocked by workers going at work with no mask, you would have jumped for joy.

So, open your roof, and jump in your car! Better to be caught on Décarie Boulevard and out of the pandemic than the other way around.

We resumed our old life, forgetting to welcome her with all the honors she deserves. By forgetting to admit to him: “I am happy to find you. »

Savor all the little hassles that go with life in society. Because it is thanks to the Ram in front and the Tercel behind that we got through. It is thanks to all the sacrifices made by the vast majority of the population that the beautiful days are back. The end of the health threat is a victory for solidarity the likes of which we have not seen in years.

Now that we have proven that we care enough about the fate of the community to agree to confine ourselves, to agree to distance ourselves from family and friends, we could come together to face another mortal danger: global warming. of the planet.

Of course, it’s a long-term fight (although COVID-19 was quite a long one!). Which cannot be settled in two years. But whose long term is likely to be short, if nothing is done.

Before the pandemic, the environment was our main concern. Will it be again? Nothing is less sure. These two difficult years have required so much self-sacrifice that we want to let go of our madness more than to change our habits again for the common good.

How many alerts will it take on our phone to feel the urgency?

How long to be caught in the traffic with only electric cars?

During the pandemic, we didn’t just say “it’s going to be fine”. We managed to make it go well. You must not let go.

Well, it unlocks, finally! It always ends up unlocking, like fate. It’s 9:30 a.m. Late for the meeting. It’s gonna be a crazy day.

Fortunately there is traffic to have time to think.