La Voz de Galicia – May 5, 2023 →
It was a documentary about David Wojnarowicz that, through his complex and diverse oeuvre, showed the life of this American artist and activist who died of AIDS in 1992, at the age of 37. His director, Chris McKim, got to tell the story in a way that was as artistic as the work itself, and it is precisely because of this that each one of the words recited by the self-same Wojnarowicz became even more relevant than what they originally were, especially in these times in which we live, when it seems that we are going backwards when it comes to rights and liberties. But I must confess that the phrase in the documentary that rang in my head this whole month had nothing to do with this political activism, but with a kind of vital activism: «smell the flowers while you can.» I suppose that it was because of the context of this fascinating artist’s life, but hearing him, I began to think about the notion that we are not always conscious of the speed with which we forget to enjoy beautiful moments when we are well, about what it means to embrace a slightly slower life to perhaps allow oneself that small luxury of smelling the flowers springing everywhere. I thought about how difficult it is to do it when one’s head is going a thousand miles an hour looking for a way to survive, or when in reality, time is good for nothing but putting out fires and going to bed with the hope that there will be fewer fires to put out tomorrow. But the truth is that, sometimes, one has to tell oneself to «smell the flowers while you can,» because life goes by fast, and suddenly one can no longer enjoy those little things that make our existence a little more bearable.
