WHATEVER I DID AND WHATEVER I DESTROYED IS A DIVE HIGH INTO A LEADEN SEA

28.09.04

My mother just called to say that she saw a bathtub ad in a magazine. It’s not about any bathtub. It has equipment for 20 different kinds of water-massage and a sound-system to listen to the birds’ chirruping or to the sounds of the forest. It costs only 8,000 Euros! All right, we’ve already said that I count my little Euros with zeal but it will be long before I start counting 1,000-Euro notes. Oh, come on, mother, extraordinary things happen here and you are speaking of bubbles.

This is not a bad idea. I think of diving once anyway. It will be a dive to the top and not the opposite! On Thursday I will climb the Acropolis hill. The Athens municipality has placed there a special kind of ramp because of the Paralympics to ease the climbing of wheelchairs to the highest rock. I will definitely take advantage of this chance, since they said that they will take it (the pad) from the rock from next week. They found out, they say, that it spoils their image and ruins the beauty of the archaeological site.

I remembered Melina again, who said how ultimately happy she was every time that she climbed the Acropolis hill. Nonetheless, nobody (not even Melina) had thought of some way to make the area accessible to wheelchair users. As if culture is not for all or as if the guarantee of equal opportunities in participation has nothing to do with culture. I love Melina very much (people pass away but not the feelings we have for them. I have every right to use the Present tense here) but I want to denounce the wrongdoings of every single human being (maybe we should not bother only with the return of the Parthenon sculptures from the British Museum).

Likewise, I want to denounce the official governmental decision not to present the whole of the closing ceremony of the Games, because of the mourning for the children who died at the car accident. It is all right to mourn but we should do this by celebrating. I think that it is enough to keep schools closed on Wednesday.