Once more my column has been suffocated; this time, actually, I’m left with only a small window, just the size that I need to offer you my New Year wishes! So, besides the usual stuff, I hope this year will be full of creative challenges and opportunities that will help us become more real if not “better” people.
As former California Treasure Phil Angelides put it in a conversation with me a while ago, “now is the time to produce real wealth”. He referred of course to the economic downturn and the collapse of the built-on-sand financial structure that led even giants like Lehman Brothers to oblivion. I, however, would apply that urge to people as well and to the creations that go beyond money- making.
In other words, it’s time to produce real wealth in music, in literature, in theater, in movies, in food, of course, in thought, and the list goes on for much longer than this space can hold. We need more real wealth in this era of superficiality and that will certainly will induce more real people, as well, in turn to choose more real leaders and our priorities in life will too be more real and realistic.
I hope this past Holiday Season you had the opportunity to enjoy some great company, nice drinks and food, and last but not least, a few aromatic cigars that remind us of both life’s beauty and frugality as we watch that handmade masterpiece go up in smoke for our pleasure. What remains after a while is only a vague aftertaste that sooner or later will be washed out in another drink. We’ll be lucky if our lives will manage to leave even this little aftertaste to others, so if you really think it over, there is no reason for so much stress when it comes to perpetuating our name for generations to come. In some cases it’s mere vanity, since human memory and history have a strange kind of justice that doesn’t allow for either interpretations or misinterpretations. In other words, don’t ask, don’t tell, or something like that, to be a little Clinton nostalgic. Anyway, besides extending my New Year wishes, let me also say a big thank you to all NEO supporters that this year too stepped up to the plate, not to eat, but to help, producing the biggest NEO issue ever, with a record number of 72 pages!
It’s true, when we started this month’s edition I thought we would be lucky to do the same as last year, given the harsh economic conditions. Mais non! You surprised us once more and we thank you for that, while renewing our commitment to making this magazine even better and yes, more real!
DEMETRIOS RHOMPOTIS
dondemetrio@neomagazine.com
Thank you!
