The events of life do not create you, they reveal you.
– Wayne Dyer
There are times when it is better to be "silent than to speak" as the old people taught us. But when the dust settles from the windstorm it's good to make an honest acknowledgment of the landscape we see.
I combine two events as the reason for this text.
I am publishing the picture I took the day before yesterday while driving and it is from the "road" border between the municipality of Ellinikos and Glyfada where the road is half paved (the relevant noise was made a few weeks ago).
And a conversation I had with Antonis Kalogirou a few months ago where he said (in a free translation as I understood it of course) that the most basic and perennial problem of this place is the civil strife between the "Greeks". From antiquity, to recent history, from the civil war of 1823 to the civil war of 1946, from the civil war - between serious and funny - between "North" and "South" to the civil war between party followers, and there is no end. The strangest thing is that these civil wars (now mostly online) are multiple. One day we can be arguing about the teams to the death and the next day the "opposing" fans are together as a professional guild and arguing with the "opponents" in the other guild...
In the tragic events, many hidden sides of each of us are revealed, where with the feeling in the red (rightfully so!) we start to "shoot" indiscriminately. And then we have hundreds of small civil wars.
I feel and understand and I am tempted along with everyone to shout, to express my opinion, to talk about who and what is to blame, about what could have been done in the past, about what could have been done more correctly, and a bunch of others, but at the same time I know that this whole thing has no end..
The thought that unfortunately (or fortunately) the responsibility has always been, is and will always be the responsibility of each of us individually keeps coming before me. I think that I, personally, when I park on the disabled ramp (for 2 minutes to get something from the pharmacy), when I throw a small piece of trash on the street, when I drive to the LEA because I'm in a hurry, when I pass the line in the queue, when he gives me wrong, the employee gives change and I pocket it and I'm even happy, when I'm alone on the highway and I don't flash, when I'm running over the speed limit because like that, when I don't recycle... then I'm finally jointly responsible for the whole situation...
But, you're going to tell me "I'm going to save the world" and I'm actually going to do it by picking up my plastic coffee cup from the beach on my way out?
Yes, one person can change the world.
When one does his duty, another (or many others) are compelled to do the right thing. This is how society works. The amazing power of social networks is not just the effect of others on us, but also our effect on others. This means that each of us has a much greater influence on others than we may realize. When we take better care of ourselves, it affects many of our fellow human beings. When we do random acts of kindness out of habit, they can spread to dozens or even hundreds of other people. And with every good deed we contribute to the maintenance of the very network that sustains us.
On the occasion of the horrible and inhuman events let's take the occasion for for everyone to take personal responsibility. And this amazing teamwork, the humanity, the massive and often anonymous mobilization to help our affected fellow human beings to transfer it to our everyday life and make it part of our culture and education of independent events!
PS
A common finding, I imagine, is the lack of a leader who can inspire, rally, show the way and take on the enormous responsibility of creatively coordinating all the inhabitants of this wonderful country.
EN 
EL 