On Earth

To make a long story short, at the beginning there was a big explosion, so scientists say… And then, well, then the planet Earth was formed… More explosions, eruptions, lava, poisonous gases, clouds, rain, ponds, oceans, Life, evolution, destruction, survival of life forms, more evolution, millions and millions of years at the speed of light, first primates, evolution of primates, upright locomotion, use of basic tools, always evolution, some millions of years more and, at a given point, pre-human life in the Rift valley, Africa… Right after that some more millions of years of evolution, controlling fire, travelling and dissemination, the ability to dream, cave painting, more destruction, different pre-human species, fights and blood, survival of the strongest, specialization, birth of Man, migration, affections, cultural and social evolution, written language, conquest of land, fights and more fights and more fights… Art, culture, society, politics, religion, beliefs, differences, more fights, more conquests, more affections, development of great cities, architecture, establishment of huge empires, the birth of Christ, fall of those same empires, middle ages, conquest of more land and the rise of empires of a different nature, craziness, blood and tears, Renaissance, expansion of Europeans all over this world, slave trade, humanism, consolidation of cultures, birth of new countries, industrialization, some more affections, some more craziness, psychoanalysis as an healing, war as an healing, death and destruction, scientific advances, medical progress, better health care, longer life expectations, better education, poorer people everywhere, people travelling faster all the time around this planet, cultures in contact more frequently, the atom bomb, mass television and so and so and so, and at the end? Well, at the end l saw you, I met you, I talked with you, I got to know you, I went out with you, I dreamt of you, I touched your hand for the first time, I fell in love… And suddenly, after so many millions of years, so much more than I could possibly understand and tell, a first kiss! And then there was this silence, this peaceful seconds when time stopped for the first time! And then there was nothing more just because everything was already in it. And then I felt electricity through my body, felt like being experiencing an earthquake, the ground moving under my feet like a huge ray-fish. And then I started to believe that a higher intelligence can in fact exist, oxygen ceased to reach my brain for some seconds, I felt the lack of breath, felt dizzy, I understood beauty, had my own religious experience. And, at last, I understood the meaning of it all… to feel that sweet rosy taste of your lips in a summer night!

(Photography: Rome – Italy, March 2006 / Text: Coimbra – Portugal, August 3rd, 2006)

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