The Escape Velocity

"Escape velocity" is the minimum speed that an object needs to escape the gravitational influence of an astronomical body and continue moving without having to make another propelling effort. I take another look at my closest surroundings, stopping this time to notice living things and objects in search of his freedom, because everything tends to escape from that which determines its freedom. Freedom as the ability to decide, an essential quality that defines the nature of things, in other words, their identity. I talk about speed but also about time and distance, since speed is just the time it takes to travel a certain distance. And I decide to flee from a linear narrative, jumping between events that happened millions of years ago and others still to come, between places as remote as the universe and others as close as home. And during the process I realize that we live trapped between two periods of time that do not belong to us, tirelessly traveling between them. The past reminds us of who we think we are, and on the future we project who we’d like to become. Past and future, the two pillars on which our identity is built. And in this constant coming and going we pursue our escape velocity, sometimes consciously, sometimes simply via our instinct to survive. We escape with our actions and with our imagination. We escape from the unknown, from the incomprehensible, from what scares us. We escape from a wound, from guilt, from a memory. We escape from an idea, a destiny, from expectations. We escape to determine a path for the present, the only place where we can really long to be free.