Interview

Christos Thanos: Thoughts and words of quarantine

8 April 2020
Christos Thanos: Thoughts and words of quarantine
Christos Thanos gives his poetic view of our situation of confinement. And it leaves a tinge of optimism. After all, it's all a matter of vision.
So much time... so much time! And yet, it's so hard to get your thoughts together. The ideas are many. The stimuli are countless. But how do you spell a word? Each letter now has its own weighty meaning. Each letter screams “I am here”, claiming its essential place in your thinking, in your writing, in your actions. Now you have no room for chatter. Now you have all the time on your side. No one and nothing is pressuring you now. Now you have no excuses. Now. Here. You're facing yourself. And you have an obligation to remember you, or even know you. To see you exactly as you are. Stripped and unprotected. Now. Here. You have the ability to dive into the depths of your being and with the lens of your eyes to illuminate them like you have never dared to. Now. Here. It can be you. As you once were. To be a teenager, a child, an infant again. If not now then when? You can see inside you far and outside you far away. You can be a part of yourself and a part of everything. You can feel your all-human existence. You can see that you are part of humanity and that humanity is part of you. If not now then when? And when we go out into the streets again and look fearlessly into the eyes, then we will see each other ourselves. We will remember, we will respect, we will sympathize. And we'll smile. And when we dive into the cool waters of the sea and lie on the soil below, then we will feel where we belong. In the here and now. It may be for a while. But it is this. That's all. And nothing else. And we'll smile.