Flying over Africa

I prefer strong feelings. The ones that turn our head around. The ones we feel deep-deep inside. The ones that fill our chest, that catch our breath, that paralyze us, that push us forward or oblige us to sit down. I prefer them. Even the bad ones. Even they are better than constant neutrality, that just makes us wish for the day to simply pass and not to care about the next one.

Composer John Barry died today.

Ushuaia

When one can´t 'fly', one flies. To Ushuaia, "end of the world, beginning of everything". Have I really done this?

I could have...

Favourite scene. Barbican, first row.

On International Holocaust Day.

The choice

In other words, the actual choice is between sadness from lack of happiness and sadness from repeat and totally unsuccessful attempts to be happy. Now, what sounds more intelligent and less pathetic?

Easy?

Happiness used to come easily. Dreams, wishes, plans and hard work were enough to guarantee it. And what was it? A feeling of being full, complete, in the right place. A feeling of being your right self. A feeling of flying.

Lack of happiness weighs terribly on us. The constant effort not to dream, not to plan, not to believe, not to trust, makes days and distances become painfully longer. Acceptance, apparently the ultimate goal, grabs us from the shoulders and keeps us firmly on the ground. No more flying.

Lack of happiness is not a passive state. It´s active and it´s exhausting.

Tulpan

People dreaming. Also in the steppes of Kazakhstan. And a little girl is stubbornly singing, with determination.

Tulpan, by Sergey Dvortsevoy.

The quest for paradise



Paul Gaugin, Two Tahitian Women (1899)

"... all his biographers would cite as a symbol of how unfair sometimes fate is to artists who are dreaming of finding Paradise on this earthly valley of tears".
Mario Vargas Llosa, The Way to Paradise

Cosa voglio di più? (II)

Tu me acostumbraste
A todas esas cosas
Y tu me enseñaste
Que son maravillosas
Sutil llegaste a mi
Como una tentación
Llenando de ansiedad
Mi corazón.

Yo no comprendia
Como se queria
En tu mundo raro
Y por ti aprendi
Por eso me pregunto
Al ver que me olvidaste
Por qué no me enseñaste
Como se vive sin ti?

Destinations

At the same time, there were flights to Lima, Quito, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile. Any of those would have served.