By Adrian Paenza, November 25, 2020
Now we can’t do anything else. That’s it.
Maradona was already a myth while he was alive. Now, another chapter will begin, the endless chapter of all those who saw him, knew him, spoke to him, touched him, or have some kind of anecdote with him.
How many people in the world are capable of touching so many others and transforming them? How many will be able to say that they crossed the lives of so many people? They are few, very few. Diego was undoubtedly one of them.
When I write “transform” I think on what produces in others an emotion, or makes them vibrate, it produces chemical secretions in them, alterations of the body. One screams and jumps but chooses to do so, perhaps because one cannot contain oneself, but remains volitional. On the other hand, genuine emotions cannot be self-generated; they require an external stimulus.
While eluding the English in Mexico, he did not know what the end would be. Here either. He was eluding the internal and external hits, until this end came. To say that one of the greatest in history died is an understatement. It was always curious for me to see him enjoy doing things that others could not, without “rubbing” his face in it.
He left too early and could no longer answer the question I had asked him so many times, in private and in public: at what moment did he realize that he was different from the others? What was it like? At what moment did he notice it? Was it perhaps an episode or a succession?
Now, let’s start making the best memories. If we are capable, we should avoid the construction of an imperfect myth, but rather review how one of “ours”, I mean “our species”, could violate the laws of physics, pass through where it could not, break its waist without being separated from its body, and use a left foot that for lack of a better word, could qualify as bionic.
He was a friend to me, with virtues and miseries like all humans, but even in miseries he always knew how to distinguish the scoundrels and appreciate the worthy ones like Che and Fidel.
He always knew who the good guys were and where the bad guys were.
Maradooooooooo…… Bye Diego, thank you.
Source: Pagina 12, translation, Resumen Latinoamericano, North American bureau