text: "I can see that the video games of this world are still mostly focused on killing monsters and... people. Or on the end of the world. Or on zombies" Astra stated while watching some reviews on my tablet, her left eyebrow risen above the other. The sky was covered with clouds again, and the quarantine was turning a little gloomy because of that continual grey light. "Will you ever focus on reality? Why don't your video games talk about reality? Video games can be serious, from time to time." "Those are just the most popular ones... I told you" I replied, sitting on a sofa. "There are many exceptions, I swear. We also need entertainment. Even if I'm not very knowledgeable in this field." "You always preferred books, I know" she said with a mocking tone. "You still give a lot of weight to words. Too much weight indeed. Video games can be as important as books. But it looks like special matter people always need entertainment, entertainment, all the time..." "Please, detach from my tablet, you're monopolizing it. Tell me more about the universe, the dark matter, your civilization. I mean, I am sure you did not come here just to spend the quarantine here in my ugly house. Please, tell me if your people found out what's the purpose of..." "Of...?" "Of life. Well, of life, of course. We barely know how dark matter works, so you must know something we don't know." "The purpose of life... Well. You'll be disappointed. No purpose. Sorry" she said drily, and kept scrolling for a while, getting to the latest news about Sony. I sighed with impatience, and after two minutes she activated her brain again: "Ok, let's put it like this: the absence of a purpose is the greatest discovery an advanced civilization can make. So my comment can just be: about time." "How come?" "Because that's the only thing that can actually make you free! If there is no meaning anywhere, that means you can just do things you like - provided that you don't work all the time pretending you want what you do. I cannot believe you are so naive to believe that life should offer you a purpose." "We are mortal. Any purpose of mine would be temporary. I want to know if there's something more." "And the fact you are mortal should mean anything to the rest of the universe? You need a great quantity of ego to think that the universe promised you something at the end of the tunnel! Oh no, you need to stop with science fiction celebrating the end of the world, and also with apocalyptic video games. You need to realize that nothing is more clever that making your time meaningful. That means: stop trying to make everything useful and productive for the whole humanity. You do not need that. This planet does not need that." I looked ad the bees struggling against the breeze in the garden, and realized that I had wasted so much time before that quarantine, I had given so much energy to a system which just wanted me to survive in order to produce more for it, exhausting me with lies about the personal choice and the necessity of a common struggle. I loved this quarantine, I loved talking about life. And I did not need a higher purpose. The whole civilization did not need to imagine absolute purposes and meanings all the time. Yes, we needed more video games about reality. Yes, we needed to resist during the lockdown, but also after it, after realizing there was no need to keep pretending that life had a purpose. No, there was no purpose, so why couldn't we enjoy our time? - or at least try. We didn't really want to back to our every day routine. "I think this virus is doing something great to humanity. But only if we're ready to learn its lesson" I stated, taking the tablet. Strangely, she didn't protest, and let it go. There was something strange in her smile.