Category Archives: Essay

Where I dump some of my mental burden

The legal right to murder

During a psychology course I attended some decades ago, the lecturer asked us to answer -anonymously- the following question: Would you be able to kill someone if you knew for sure you weren’t going to be found responsible or suspect, … Continue reading

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Close encounters of the second kind

I liked him at first sight. He was a tall and somewhat ungraceful man of crude and unusual features–as if his face had been left unfinished by the sculptor–suggestive of a sound yet silent character. We had met at a … Continue reading

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The ‘Time passed away’ carol

When passing by the function room at the Orthodox Institute, the man hears a choir of child-like voices, and –curious– peeps through the laces of the glass doors. He sees a group of children rehearsing Christmas carols, conducted by a … Continue reading

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The cosmic connection

Dedicated to Andrada It was years before my natural curiosity and my studies took me to tread the paths of science; before I had any interest in knowledge; it was in my early adolescence, when everything is yet to be … Continue reading

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Christmas Eve among bums

It’s Christmas Eve. A big full moon, very round and white, shines on the pure black of a Polish night. I drag my Christmas loneliness, on an empty stomach, along the cold and deserted streets of Bialystok. What am I … Continue reading

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Lately I’ve been thinking…

Opinions versus judgement Much more important than opinions is judgement. Opinions — our takes on social or political subjects, our views, can be easily manipulated and may well have been instilled into us; we may have taken them from our … Continue reading

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Treviño, a Castilian exclave in the Basque

Despite the many routes that I’ve already done around the Basque Country, I’m yet to see, in its southern part (called the Álava plain), something that does not resemble Castille; therefore I say: the fact that the Álava plain belongs … Continue reading

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The shortest full documentary about Poland ever made.

It happened by chance; I didn’t plan it. I had just crossed the border and stopped in the first Polish village offering accomodation. After settling in at the hotel, I went for a walk and took the camera with me. … Continue reading

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