Locked up at home I understood how fragile life is and how susceptible fear and anxiety can be. In Colombia we do not know with certainty when COVID-19 reached us, the truth is that on March 25, 2020, what for many was an unknown world began, what the collective imagination translated into means such as staying at home, what that many of us adopt the bad ones as a pause. At home I saw the newspapers and newscasts illustrating the reality outside, I experienced chaos in all the stores, I ran out of some food, not to mention alcohol and antibacterial – which was not available anywhere. We spent 156 days in quarantine, and while time – long and eternal – passed, I saw my little son each time showing symptoms of confinement, the loss of sleep was not only experienced by me, and his attitude was changing completely.
In that context we made a deal, we undertook a fantastic journey to safety – “Science, my son, is full of errors; but errors that should be known ”.
So we built a time tunnel with sheets, we traveled through jungles in our garden, we became masters of time and space. We plan to get to the center of the earth, looking at the statistics, and taking up some calculations that Jules Verne raises, we conclude that COVID-19 would not reach the core of the earth due to the density and high temperatures, so we started this long journey.
I never imagined time travel would be so complex – come on, if you get scared so soon, what will you save for later? ” I was telling my son: the tunnel of savannas that we built took us to the room of a Tyrannosaurus Rex that grew with the light, it took us to extensive plains of the patio where beautiful and giant elephants walked, during the trip, we saw the stars as soon they settled in the bathroom and we were suddenly able to play with them each time.
As the days went by we immersed ourselves much more towards the safe earthly core, we always carried with us a special mask that took care of the virus, antibacterial gel and some alcohol, one day we found a little blue planet with a happy face and a stuffed dog who accompanied us a good part of the trip.
Many fantastic adventures happened during those 156 days, this trip to the center of the earth will last at least 6 more years, while the mind of my little son matures and becomes a teenager who does not remember how the time tunnel of savannas works: “What we must try is to take advantage of the facts, not explain them to ourselves”.
Journey to the center of the earth, born from the need as a father to take my son out of quarantine, talks about how hard this process was, reflects on parenthood and the care of our children as well as how imagery works as pedagogy with children. It is an imagery based on Jules Verne’s book, open and sincere that makes my son and I accomplices.
