Joey Reyes on importance of humor in time of pandemic

Joey Reyes

Director and film producer Jose Javier Reyes believes that the best way to combat pandemic-related anxiety is to “find humor in every situation and keep on laughing.”

He explains: “If you take things seriously, you’ll surely go crazy. We should learn to accept that we can’t go back to where we were when we left in March. It’s going to be a different world when the quarantine period finally ends.”

Reyes, however, says we should also be sensitive to the plight of other Filipinos. “I have PAL (Philippine Airlines) flight attendant friends who got laid off. There’s also those who work in hotels and beach resorts. We don’t know how, but we have to fight and survive. Little did we know that the ‘Third World War’ would involve germs. It wasn’t anything nuclear-powered; it’s a virus,” he observed.

Asked for his views on the fact that people are being ordered to stay at home to help stop the spread of the deadly new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Reyes said: “Is it good or bad? It’s bad because it’s affecting us emotionally and financially, but it is also good because the Earth has never been so beautiful. It’s now able to breathe. The sky is so much prettier and the ozone layer is slowly healing.”

For Reyes, “humankind is being punished; and the punishment is really severe because it’s changing the world.” —Marinel Cruz INQ