By Apostolos Kotsampasis

The line that separates everyday life from its transcendence is very thin. The same and more so with human standards.

A simple example: Noon at a beach bar on a beach in Evia, late July. The music is playing loudly, lots of people are enjoying the sea and their coffee. A beautiful summer picture. A few kilometres away a fire plane with two pilots is trying to put out a fire in a forest on the island. Flying, literally, in combat conditions, considering the thermal currents under the aircraft. Two pilots, by choice, go up against the elements. Two pilots, by choice, struggling to keep the daily life of the beach bar, and by extension each of us, intact. What most of us take for granted, of course not, if these two don’t make it. Just because they don’t ask us for anything, doesn’t mean we don’t owe them almost everything. Respect and honor to Canadair Captain Christos Moulas and Lieutenant Pericles Stephanidis. And silence.