More than 150 people took part in the gathering, including members of the Bolesławiec Amazons Club, representatives and students of the District Complex of Schools and Special Institutions, the Polish Red Cross, the Senior Citizens’ Home, the Community Support Home, as well as representatives of the partner Bautzen district and local-government representatives.
The aim of the Carpe Diem association is to counteract social exclusion based on age, an incurable illness or poverty. The Mystery of Bread is a thanksgiving ceremony that helps bring the association’s goals to life.
“A person needs two things in life: hope and a sense of security,” Eugenia Wolska said during the welcome. “I wondered how to awaken gratitude in people for what they have and how to evoke it; Olga Tokarczuk helped me with this. She said that, amid the flood of information, we have become indifferent to all suffering that does not affect us directly. Who, getting out of bed this morning, was grateful that they were not fleeing bombs? Who thought over breakfast that many Syrians have no home, that the governments of foreign countries are sending them bombs that destroy those homes? Around a quarter of a million civilians from Syria are moving through their country toward Turkey, seeking safety and saving their lives. Many people die of hunger around the world, and many have no access to clean water. We have all of this. When we reflect on what Olga Tokarczuk said, we feel grateful that we are free from these terrible things, but I am sure that until now we had not been grateful for what we have,” the Association’s president explained.
The Association’s daily message for 2020, in accordance with Olga Tokarczuk’s words, is to be present in reality and stay close to the people dear to us.
“Olga Tokarczuk says that we become too attached to objects and distance ourselves from physical contact; she suggests: let us not allow anyone to take real life away from us. Let us appreciate modernity, but let us not enter the virtual world in our relationships with family, loved ones and neighbours,” Eugenia Wolska wished everyone, in accordance with the Nobel laureate’s words.
The ceremony was enriched by performances from the Nowogrodziec Community Choir Harmonia, the Jutrzenka Song and Dance Ensemble, and pupils under the care of the District Complex of Schools and Special Institutions.