Thursday, June 4, 2020

Breathless

Corona crisis. Lockdown. Stranded with my parents, unable to return home. Possibly the worst moment EVER to quit smoking! But that's exactly what I did. And I made a video of it!

When I considered different title options, BREATHLESS was the one I liked best. For a little while I was wondering whether it might be disrespectful to all those people suffering in the ICUs at the moment. But I figured there are far more people who lose their breath through smoking than through a coronavirus, so in the end I stuck with it. Then, two days before I published the video, George Floyd said his last words: I can't breathe.

The year 2020 – BREATHLESS indeed!

And in case that a pandemic and full blown racism don't convince you yet, check out the news (here and here) from the Amazon where record amounts of rainforest are torn down, destroying the lungs of the planet. You might survive Covid-19, you might survive racist violence and you might even survive smoking. But will you survive a world without trees?

What a mess! Let's just hope that our wisdom will grow faster than our destructive madness. In the meantime, here's my little documentary: BREATHLESS - quitting smoking in lockdown