At the beginning of the ZX comic you might have noticed the location of the dam. It's based on a real place, one I've visited often, at Marathon. It's as much a character in the comic for me, as ZX or Stefanos or Mary. The photos above are of that place. It doesn't exist, as you see it, anymore. While the dam has nothing to fear of fire and will tell our silent tale long after we've made a mess of everything else, the evergreen around it is now gone.
So, here's to the memories. Here's also to this enduring memory of a Greece at constant organizational shambles, a Greece that never stands a chance as long as it doesn't take itself seriously. Here's to crooked smiles also, they always know what to say and how to pacify, how to make a gentle spectacle of this disaster that keeps on happening. You know what it means and now you don't have to make an effort to understand it anymore.
My house will probably survive the fires. Do not be alarmed if I do not post tomorrow, my family might be evacuated, but I'll be back, on one machine or another. We'll all keep talking here on the spectral internet, but please, look at the Marathon Dam above and raise an spectral glass with a spectral arm. If something insides you shifts just a tiny little bit, don't be alarmed, you're still human. You keep on being human no matter what they do to you.
From this far-away place that you might have only imagined, there are humans here also and with their burnt faces moist with tears, a salute.
- Helm
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11 comments:
One of the most beautiful spots in Attica. I was a regular dam-walker.
Cheers to getting what's deserved.
that was nice and pretentious enough.
GOOD JOB!
What am I pretending to be?
I think anonymous is a 'pretend' hater acting to disparage the genuine article. Your holiday snaps are fine.
Though your question may be designed to confound 'Anonymous' through a deliberate confusion of the definition of 'pretentious', I feel obliged to inform you that the definition of 'pretentious' is actually: "attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed". I don't think it is correct usage of the word 'pretending' to say a pretentious person is pretending to be a person of greater importance ...
Good luck with 'dem fires!
"I think anonymous is a 'pretend' hater acting to disparage the genuine article. Your holiday snaps are fine."
That's entirely too many circles around oneself for me.
These are not holiday snaps.
Surely you can track IP addresses to differentiate between people? Anyway, I'm not pretending to be Anonymous.
Even if I could track IPs I wouldn't do it because I'm not interested in being the internet super-sleuth.
I didn't suggest you were the above anonymous poster. The comment about running circles around oneself was not about you although it was in reply to you. You suggested he could be pretending to be an internet jackass to lampoon internet jackassery et al and I found that needlessly circular and also, improbable.
Let's talk about something more interesting the next time.
Too bad... It seems every year we are a step closer to dystopia, at least regarding ecology and nature.
Glad that you are fine though.
On a sidenote, there was a viewpoint rather prelavent around me (even with family members) that the majority of the houses built inside the forest area or close to it were illegal so we should not feel much pitty for these people. Such kind of thinking/rationalisations almost always bring me a knee-jerk reaction. Not to say there should not be a better plan for human growth within such areas though.
Anyhow, I wonder what's gonna burn next year.
Yeah I've heard that point of view before, I won't bother with it though.
Nothing can destroy destruction.
Unfortunately it is the ugly nature of man to care little for things that offer him no immediate profit. Humanity is a well-oiled machine of destruction, leaving nothing but fond memories of a once beautiful planet in its wake.
I had visited the place in the pictures before the fires. I will not visit again. I have no intention of overwriting the beautiful image still lingering in my head with another wasteland.
My own story is not too different. I grew up in Chalkidiki, Chanioti. What was once a beautiful place full of trees and simple homes has slowly, over the years turned into a tourist attraction, one beautiful beach falling after the next, until one day, as if the land itself threw up, fire burned whatever was left to burn.
It serves as a good reminder however. Nothing ever stays the same. It is difficult to imagine what the children of next generation will find magical, like I believed that place to be. It is just as difficult to find magic in the world, when you know destruction lurks around the corner, waiting until the day it will bring about the most profit.
I hope at least your place got out of it safe Helm, mine did not. With it, my first car and first true love (as humans are never deserving of such) went with it. I think I prefer it that way. Now there's truly nothing for me to go back for. It can all remain a beautiful memory without the tarnish of trying to put broken glass back together.
Vak I'm really sorry about what happened to you & Chalkidiki. Thank you for sharing.
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