translated from Spanish: The lightness of each day

Mr. Director:
Life gives you surprises, surprises gives you life, says Rubén Blades in “Pedro Navaja”, in less than a minute life can give you a turn and out of nothing everything changes. Saturday, a roast, friends around the grill, a glass of wine, laughter and jokes while trying some meat. All normal, everyday, superfluous, nothing from the other world.
Between noises, voices and drinks something gets stuck in the throat. It’s nothing, it’s going to happen, you have to stay calm, nobody notices, the air doesn’t go into the lungs. No case, you can’t talk, someone realizes, they think you’re joking, will the end be so clumsy and unglamorous?
You do not think of gods, crosses or hazelhomes, there are no ayatolas, priests, shepherds, or rabbis; there’s no epiphanies either, you don’t spend your life in seconds, you don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel. Only friends nearby, you know the “Heimlich maneuver”, apply it, cough… Breathe.
Everything stays the same, a couple of jokes and another subject. The glass fills up again, a couple of minutes and you eat more carefully, but normal. Nothing happened, you seem to be calm, shame can more than say thank you. Monday’s work, another week, the usual news; an oil spill, another portonazo, unemployment rises, the morning deals with national politics, nothing changes. The lightness of each day…
Daniel Recasens Figueroa
Journalist

Original source in Spanish