This has not been the best of years. A global pandemic without precedent over the last 100 years hit the world hard. In my family's case, infection has so far affected my wife and mother-in-law, with almost no complications. More devastatingly, though, it meant that we had to say goodbye to my father-in-law, Tomás Cajigas, on December 7th, the week when he should have turned 81.
Tomás was a strong influence in my life. I met him aged 18, when I first came to Madrid to attend university and first befriended his daughter and my wife-to-be, Noelle. Over these almost three decades we shared many things, an in particular a love for reading, writing and discussing ideas in general. Tomás was a well of varied knowledge, always ready to generously share it with those around him. The idea that came to my mind more recurrently during the initial mourning phase was that the good-guys team had lost a great general with his demise.
Knowing that I will miss him dearly and will always clinch on to the many, many fond memories, it is momentous that 2020 should also be the year in which I have taken up reading and writing more consistently. I guess it started, early in the year, due to lack of alternative uses of time. The quasi-total cancellation of any in-person social agenda freed up chucks of time that simply were not there before.
Now, as a tribute to 'abu Tomás', as my three kids –including his namesake, born in 2009– lovingly called him, I hope that I am able to bring over the line my most ambitious work of non-fiction yet. I know that no one would be more excited about reading those throughs on the future of education –and connected lines of argumentation– than him. ¡Va por ti, abu!
