You never travelled much outside the frontiers of our native land. Inside the frontiers, you travelled a lot, mainly in the last decade of your life. That was probably the third and last phase of your hunger of living. You really were in many of the beautiful corners of this small “garden planted by the sea”.
The first phase was long, not in years but in the perception of time. The days were open paths to adventure, time was endless, the future was waiting brightly somewhere ahead and you had a million plans to accomplish.
In the second phase, Philosophy, Science and Science Fiction became your main passions... before you entered in the adventure of Psychology. During those years you were a great traveller, inside your mind and in the experiences of life. Travelling through the infinite universe was your aim, you believed in the unbelievable, you sought for what was beyond... Travelling among the stars was much more appealing to you than travelling across this finite planet. With Psychology you travelled through your mind and the others’ minds. You even tried to understand my idiosyncratic mind, my unbelief in the future, my idealism and criticism, my heterodox and divergent thought, my elephant selective memory and the tranquil hunger of living each present moment and create as a way of breathing... And you understood me... not through psychology but through the empathy of the affects and the minds.
Then, the roads and the crossroads of life took you to new places and experiences. You tried to fit in the system... how boring to fit in the system and be a “normal guy”! But you adapted, for some time you fit in the system and even were extremely efficient. But a traveller of the stars cannot stay forever within the limits of a small conventional world. You adapted, you fit but never gave up from your dreams and visions. For some time, you decided that the stars would have to wait. There was a small world around to explore. A small world that wasn’t so small after all! In your motorbike, you devoured thousands of miles along your road of finite freedom. How many times, did you phone me saying “Guess where I am now? This is beautiful! You should be here too!” But I wasn’t... one day I’ll be there too in each of those corners and you’ll be still there too...
This travel is a perpetual movement, the movement of life goes on and you go on within it... just in a different shape... I still can hear your motorbike opening paths in your new road, your infinite road of freedom. Now you are a traveller of the stars... Are you happy there? Are you free there? Is the path of the stars the path you were looking for?
Hear the grass growing in the mountains of our childhood! It is still growing, time after time... You’re still walking on this finite ground, traveller of the stars... In this perpetual movement through the infinite time-space, you are always far and near... all the finite roads are inscribed in the infinite road. Ride on, traveller of the stars!
These lines were written as a tribute to my beloved brother, Kim, who died three years ago precisely on this day (30/1/2011).
Higher and higher I, photography by Kim / Joaquim M. E. Ludovino.
Higher and higher II, photography by Kim / Joaquim M. E. Ludovino.
Higher and higher III, photography by Kim / Joaquim M. E. Ludovino.
Catching the light within the shadow, photography by Kim / Joaquim M. E. Ludovino.
Twisted Road, photography by Kim / Joaquim M. E. Ludovino.
Steps into the unknown, photography by Kim / Joaquim M. E. Ludovino.
Finite World, photography by Kim / Joaquim M. E. Ludovino.
A Toast to Life... with Madeira's poncha, photography by Kim / Joaquim M. E. Ludovino.
Galaxy, photography by São Ludovino.
I’LL MEET YOU AMONG THE STARS
(What will I do without you?)
What will I do now
That you are gone?
Just yesterday it seemed to me
A thousand lights were shinning in the night.
Now I know
That was only because your feet
Were stepping the same soil I did.
Now I know
Why earth seems to me
So far and so near from the sky.
Now I know
Why I sought for eternity
In each sunset.
Now I know
Why memory is the most precious
And sad link.
Now I know
Why I always said
«See you later!»
Even when I knew
There wouldn’t be any tomorrow.
Now I know
Why I told you to plant apple trees
Three days before you were gone.
Now I know
Why I keep waiting for the flowers
To bloom in the winter you left behind.
Now I understand
Your painful hunger of living.
Now I know
Why the time was running faster for you.
Now I know
Why your gigantic wings were broken
Now I know
The unbearable weigh of loss.
My memory
Will follow you side by side.
I’ll meet you again someday
Among the stars.
I’ll Meet You Among The Stars, a poem by São Ludovino, 5/2/2011 (written 6 days after your departure... now it will remain here in these Common Treasures...)
