As usual, it’s difficult for me to write this letter from the editor without making it really personal. However, this time I prefer to keep things purely professional, and let me explain why. You see, these past few months haven’t been the easiest in this part of the world, and in times of uncertainty, in days of darkness and hopelessness, the only way to keep on going is to focus purely on work. Isn’t this something that we all do, anyway? There’s this desire to not want to hear any news about anything, a wish to avoid seeing what’s going on and to act as if nothing has happened. It is, quite simply, a need for silence. Yet some say that it is in this silence that we can find the world’s greatest violence. Why? Because in this state of denial, which has been our reality for so long now, only chaos ensues. And in this chaos, a mute form of violence exists. I can feel it in our daily mentality. It has become the new norm. It is a calm indifference towards a world that is collapsing all around us.
Our silence is pitted against the barrage of daily news featuring terrorists, massacres, bombs, religious hatred, and more. In our sacred silence we can at least reassure ourselves that there’s nothing happening. There are no sounds, no actions, no visions of pure evil.
In such despairing times, I think about what we have been able to achieve and what we still can achieve. I remind myself of what is out there, and of the people and friends with whom I have the good fortune to work. These are people whom I not only respect and admire, but who are true inspirations in the deepest sense of the word. Above all, I look to the skies and remind myself how lucky and blessed I am to be able to sense what the air feels like just after the storm. Time and again, and forevermore.