Let’s See Where We Land

This year's July is a thing of the past. Will it be a Historical July, such as e.g. Lublin July 1980 full of strikes that excited, but it never occurred to anyone, that they were a strange sign of approaching a completely different era? 

On July 29, after four o'clock, MS Chrobry sailed out of our beautiful Gdynia, heading to South America. Among the 1042 passengers, two novice writers, Czesław Straszewicz and Witold Gombrowicz, were equipped with first-class tickets by Jerzy Giedroyc (then a ministerial official dealing with the promotion of Polish culture). On August 20, 1939, around 11:00, the ship sailed to Buenos Aires. On September 1, 1939, he found it on the way back at the height of Pernambuco. He did not survive the Brave War. Straszewicz and Gombrowicz yes. Straszewicz decided to return, he served in the armored cavalry brigade of General Maczek, from 1943 he was the editor of the radio station Dawn Broadcasting from England to the occupied country. 

And the other one?

If things go downhill again, clearly, towards a new era, where will Witold Gombrowicz 2.0 fly? South Island of New Zealand? Sure, still somewhere in the warm tropics, although one day I would like to see a black and white selfie Gombro 2.0 in a fur Greenland hat taking out his dog sled for a morning walk. 

Well, but the glaciers are already flowing, the chances of such a version of the future are melting in the eyes.

In the face of the new era, no quick assessments of individual choices, no black and white patterns of rightness and wrongness give certainty. We'll see where we land.

They say that W. Gombrowicz has more value for Polish culture than the entire Atlantic with luxurious equipment. And this is not a malicious opinion about the strength of the shipbuilding industry.