Friends who leave

There are weeks when we suddenly become aware of several friends leaving, taking us by surprise, because, strictly speaking, death is not announced. We know it is inexorable, but we always hope it will delay its arrival. In recent days, events have accelerated in a disturbing way. If it is true that as time passes, the list of missing friends becomes longer than the list of those who continue to accompany us, the truth is that memory is filled with memories of a different nature, constituting the true enigma of life.

I start by remembering Francisco Pinto Balsemão. There are fifty years of contact and their memory is linked to the very affirmation of democracy. With exemplary coherence, it has always fought, with all its strength and with the inherent risks, for freedom of opinion and against censorship, in the name of a free press and media. For the active and intervening citizen, who understood that the event was our inner master, freedom would never be acquired, and the desire to contribute to a better world required permanent care and attention. It is not about building a society of good and bad in confrontation, but about respecting each other as free and equal beings in dignity and rights. In one of our last long conversations, I wanted to exchange views on education and the new circumstances of uncertainty, wondering how to integrate progress into learning. And every year at the National Culture Center we met to decide the European Prize Helena Vaz da Silva, from Europa Nostra, of which she was an enthusiast, linking cultural heritage and communication, as we had previously been with Isabel da Nóbrega in the National Portuguese Language Championship. He was an innovator and a pioneer always available to implement new ideas. Much has been said these days about his example. However, much remains to be said, which time will certainly make clear.

A few days ago, I spoke to Álvaro Laborinho Lúcio, who told me he had a health problem that prevented him from helping me with a small problem. His death took me by brutal surprise. I have always admired his manhood, creativity and his permanent commitment to the humanization of justice, the rights of children and young people, instead of the cult of spectacular and useless gestures carried out in the name of any moralistic blindness. What he did at the Center for Judicial Studies and in justice policies was fundamental and cannot be forgotten. I had the pleasure of presenting one of your books and counting on your friendship. About him I remember what Cicero said: authentic friendship is the kind agreement with the fundamental things of life.

I still remember many years of literary and cultural encounters with Liberto Cruz. In recent weeks we also agreed to meet to talk at Gulbenkian about Ruben A., in addition to receiving his contributions to the decision for a literary prize. He was a literary scholar and a discerning essayist of merit, to whose work I returned a few days ago to benefit from his precious knowledge and reflections. And I finish by remembering João Queiroz, one of the great contemporary painters, who left us at the height of his creative capacity. We are astonished at the will of the gods.

Executive administrator of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation