Editor’s Note
Last Sunday we watched German football club Bayern Munich beat French club Paris Saint-Germain (on TV, of course) to win the Champion’s League by a narrow margin of 1 goal to nil. I stayed up to watch the lifting of the trophy, partly to get another glimpse of the Germanic godliness that is goalie Manuel Neuer; partly because I was intrigued by the macho-vulnerability of tattoo-covered Neymar crying his eyes out, and partly because I wanted to see if the winning team would lift the trophy with as much exuberance for an empty stadium as they would have if thousands of their fans were there cheering them on.
It must have been a strange sensation to perform the celebration rituals both for no-one — and for everyone watching across the world. On my side of the screen we heard the fans cheering their hearts out. Luckily the guy whose new job is to press the button for the correct soundtrack — “cheering”, “chanting”, “hooting” or “gasping” — selected the right one. On the stadium side I assume they only heard each other’s joy. They leapt about together, embracing each other as if it were 2019. The strangeness of this pandemic-altered year will surely fix the experience even more firmly in their memories — and perhaps, in retrospect, they’ll be happy about that.
The spectacle reminded me of the value of team work, even in extraordinary circumstances. It’s difficult, but still possible in isolation. We, like many other teams who are used to working together and now have to operate over screens, manage to do it every week — although we miss seeing each other in person.
This is the idea that comes across strongly in our main feature this week. Rather than let the isolation of lockdown get them down, a group of South African creatives decided to collaborate on a project, specially for Lifestyle, to make beautiful designs and artworks that would celebrate each other’s talents.
In each piece the talent of everyone involved is apparent; from the subject or subjects of each work to the person or people creating it. We hope that it beautifies your Sunday.
For comments, criticism or praise, write to nagela@sundaytimes.co.za