Decameron: The stories we tell ourselves [I/1]
Day 1, Tale 1
Once there was a woman named Emma Cepparello, a great merchant of Amazon.
In mid-March, she found herself talking to a friend from high school, who asked how she was doing. In that time, it was not uncommon to send texts to random people because there was little all else to do.
“Oh, it’s all good. I got my side hustle going,” Emma said, referring to her practice of driving from rural dollar store to rural dollar store to purchase up all the hand sanitizer and toilet paper so she could sell it on the secondary market at a considerable markup. “Though sometimes, I have to admit, I do feel guilty that I’m not saving enough.”
“That’s forgivable, I hear ya,” texted the friend.
“I also have been trying to write more and use my talents as a communicator to make sure people are doing what’s best for themselves,” added Emma, naturally talking about a viral post she wrote on the blogging service Medium, a post that drew from her time explaining why the MLM she participated in was not a pyramid scheme to explain why, in her view, Coronavirus was not, in fact, exponentially growing. “But I guess I have trouble processing the attention.”
“Oh that’s super common just keep your chin up you can handle it,” her friend said.
“I just have to keep at it, we all have to stay disciplined here,” she said. This, naturally, referred to her decision to uphold her policy of not refunding deposits made on the illegal Airbnb she operated out of her basement for the foreseeable future. “I just wonder if I’m putting too much pressure on myself is all.”
“You’re doing the right thing,” said the friend. “And don’t worry, on a long enough timespan the good karma you’re putting out there is going to come back.
LATER THAT VERY DAY