THE DAMN LETTER

This issue is dedicated to gardens, and we wanted it to be a great beginning of spring, where we could walk across the photographs and interviews through different spaces that I have always liked, where I have often found a balance for my restless mind, where touch, sight, smell, and sound give me peace.

But then came turbulent times, where despite all the efforts, no matter how many gardens there were, revolutionized all of our senses once again. I live in a fortunate country, where at this time the war is only seen through images and sounds, but everything that happens around us muddies this nonsense called WAR. Not that there are no other wars, but this one is closer to us and we are more aware of it since it is only a few hours away.

In an effort to get my realistic side out of the way, so as not to depress readers any more than the news and images do on a daily basis, I surrender my hands to the force of the universe so that it may guide me through THE DAMN LETTER. I have decided to call it that, because with every new issue I sit in front of this blank piece of paper that I stare at and stare at and it doesn’t speak to me; it laughs at me and harasses me, it greets me, here we are again, it mocks me, the only thing missing is for it to stick its tongue out at me.

I am sending out my most sincere gratitude to Caroline de Maigret for her generosity for our cover, this beautiful, serene, kind, cultured woman, with not an ounce of pretentiousness in her, so natural in these times we live in. It has been a delight to have her with us.

Dave Gahan is part of the soundtrack of my life. As the much-danced song’s own title says, Everything Counts, and everything counts. I have just turned it on at full volume as I write; my feet start to move, I stop, stick my tongue out at the letter and start to dance.

I am back again and still thinking about the gardens, each one so special, from the books, the paintings, the foundations, the hotels, the orchards, those that the great Eneko Atxa has, where he creates magic in each dish and also in the most sustainable way.

I find this issue hard. I think, with everything that is going on here I am writing a letter about how wonderful everything that makes up the issue is. I find it frivolous, but no matter what, life goes on, and the image of a woman comes to my mind: after having entered her bombed house, she lifts the lid of her piano, the only thing that remained intact, and begins to play for the last time before leaving her home. Then I think, it is not frivolous, it is hope, it is a desire for something better, it is because we can enjoy in spite of everything, because there is so much beauty, that the frivolous and atrocious thing to do would be not to enjoy it.

So enjoy this issue, there will always be music, reading, art, gardens—enjoy everything with your whole being, with touch, sound, smell, taste, and sight.

“War is the quintessential foolish crime,

The only one that cannot attain the forgiveness of God and of men”.

“War goes against culture, for it destroys all spiritual values.”

“Lord! War is evil and barbaric; the war detested by mothers, the souls it blackens; while the war is waging, who will sow the earth? Who will sow the wheat that by and by yellows?”

Poems by Antonio Machado