Dr. Ioannis Spyridon Gousias shares thoughts, reflections and images through ellines. Through an intensely personal text, he approaches aspects of the pandemic with a look that escapes the strict scientific character of his capacity without aeolian emotions but deeply human. This is the value of what he records.

My dear godchild,

I didn’t manage to bring you the shoes you wanted for Easter.

I didn’t have time to bring you the toys you wanted for Easter.

I didn’t manage to bring you the books I wanted and that you are unbearably bored with.

I didn’t have time to bring you the chocolate eggs that melted in the suitcase, filling all my clothes with chocolate. Chocolate iron.

I didn’t catch it …

In the waiting room of an airport, blocked due to a pandemic and a canceled flight. Cancellation pandemic.

I didn’t catch it…

The flight from Italy was canceled because it had no passengers. The grandparents who would travel to see their children and their grandchildren did not catch up. They received the baptism of Jesus and wore the crowns of His kingdom. The flight from Spain was canceled. The flight from England, from Belgium, from America was also canceled. They didn’t catch on.

I didn’t catch it …

The Olympic Games were canceled, the torch relay was canceled. It was natural, since they only take place in peacetime. How to do it when humanity is at war with its consciousness? In a war with the planet that hosts us. Oh yes, in war and with a virus…

And all this joy and positive energy on social media? Lost ammunition? Cheap sparklers? The flame of Ancient Olympia did not manage to reach her either. Lockdown to ideals. Not now, long ago. They didn’t catch on.

Alone in the waiting room, I was waiting for an announcement, a fellow traveler, a phone call that someone was waiting for me at the other end of the line. How my baptismal font worries me.

I only caught a candle.

Who is waiting for you at the other end of the line of the cardiologist, when it becomes straight? Light or dark avenue? With or without tunnel? Did all those who left alone, without family, without friends, without a hug, without a kiss, have at least one fellow traveler for Acherousia? Or just the virus that deprived them of their last kiss?

“Secondly, get a mask and antiseptic, forget about my cash sir, only a card … One by one in the boat of Acheron and two meters away from the boat, don’t get stuck … Cerberus doesn’t get stuck, calm down my lady!”

Did I study medicine in peacetime, did I not study human resource management, or an orchestra conductor in Mockart’s Requiem? Tickets for the ICU respirator are not enough. What do you mean I follow the selection criteria? What Gospel does SOS have? Am I listening to bells? I didn’t manage to find out, I didn’t manage.

Which special outfit, which mask, which gloves? What needs will you tell me to be revealed first, since the politicians did not catch up, the funds for research did not catch up, the suppliers did not catch up? Do I hear trumpets? Only the last obols for the program of Revelation only succeeded.

And as I begin to put my thoughts in order and remember my vow to Hippocrates, a passenger with a valid ticket, an Italian priest, voluntarily puts his respirator on a young believer from his flock and leaves.

For his Guide … Companionship with his Guide…

He managed to believe in both God and man. He managed to count all the knots from the rosary. Did I catch it? And if I did, who would I confess to now? Will images and regrets go away in a lifetime?

The thought of leaving those who brought you to life at the mercy of mercy alone has a discontinuity of morality, a discontinuity of humanity, a cerebral thrombosis. How will you proceed afterwards? Will you manage to save your soul? Will you be able to save the planet? Will you be able to enjoy your life in it? Continuing or just continuing?

“Doctor, will I be able to confess?”

Are the churches still open?

I only caught a candle…

What thing? Has the Resurrected Pannychida been transferred? The aftermath of the Apocalypse … Again, the Son was resurrected.

I didn’t manage to light a candle. For those who left. For those who remain. For the undecided, who pray to see a light in the darkness of their minds. Methamonas and the President…

Does anyone here the prayers up there?

This year the Holy Week will have a long duration and will be experiential. Maybe because we lost the people around us. Maybe because it’s time to resurrect the man within us. Will I catch up?

My favorite baptismal font, I didn’t manage to teach you that I don’t want you to look me in the arms when you see me, but in my eyes, because that’s where my love for you is hidden. How in front of the value of love, even the most expensive clothes are chewing gum, the most expensive toys are cans, the most expensive jewelry are simple beads. It costs a lot to love, but it’s also a great treasure to be loved. I didn’t manage to teach you that

the size and design of the cake is worthless if you don’t have relatives and friends to share its pieces with.

“I will miss that grandmother’s recipe, oh how I will miss her. She was treating us sweetly, we treated her to medicine. “

If I had managed to teach you the value of love, they would be happy to hear me on the other side of the line. Just listen to me. But I didn’t catch it. I didn’t even manage to bring you your gifts. Neither did you call me at the other end of the line.

The only thing I caught was getting a candle, your candle. A candle of a crown. Due to the restrictions, I can’t bring it to you, nor have I taken any masks or antiseptics.

Don’t worry though, I’ll turn it on.

With the hope that I will be able to teach you what I want, what I have forgotten, to be able to change, to anticipate, to anticipate, to anticipate. And pray too for all those who did not …

Your godfather

John S. Gousias

Dr. Ioannis Spyridon Gousias is a multi-award winning neuroscientist, academic, expert in research and technology, pioneering the modeling and mapping of infants and children.

Read more about Dr. Ioannis Spyridon Gousia here.

See the speech of Dr. Ioannis Spyridon Gousia at the first conference of ellines.com here.