What is really important? What touches us today – and will not go away tomorrow? It’s the things that have moved us since human existence: happiness, love, family, partnership, time, stress, loneliness, farewell, grief.
BILD columnist Louis Hagen*, who comes from a German-Jewish family, sought answers to the eternal questions of mankind from poets, thinkers and researchers. And found a few answers that are amazingly simple – and yet can enrich our lives.
★★★
A very special week is approaching us – the meantime of sweet dreams.
I mean the joy of Easter. “Where are you traveling to?” is the most common question I hear now. “I’ll stay here and make myself comfortable at home,” is the second most common answer I hear.
The week before Easter – what does it have that other weeks don’t have?
BILD columnist Louis Hagen
I think she is the lucky little thing in the big annual calendar. A few days for yourself, a few days with family. The big festival is Christmas, nobody can avoid it. But you can celebrate Easter in silence if you want.
It is the departure in nature, it is our departure into a new year. For millions of believers in Germany, it is the commemoration of Jesus Christ. He was crucified and rose again – the wonderful and most important message of Christianity.
But Easter is also the festival that you can look forward to. My friend Maxim, master’s student from Berlin: “I’m glad not to do anything for a week. No seminars, no exams, no homework. Easter is just right for me!”
Another friend of mine, the journalist Matthias, is staying in sunny southern Spain near Malaga these days before Easter. “At 25 degrees in the shade, the sangria tastes particularly good. And my children enjoy the warm sea water.”
My friend Imke is looking forward to visiting her old home in Schleswig an der Schlei. “You have a wonderful view from the Wikingturm – just right to get away from the hustle and bustle of Berlin.”
So these days there are many reasons to look forward to Easter, dear readers. This week – the mean time of sweet dreams.
* Louis Hagen (76) was a member of the BILD editor-in-chief for 13 years and is now a consultant at the communications agency WMP. His texts have also been published as a book and are available at koehler-mittel-shop.de.