JUSTYNA KOWALCZYK AND THE CHANGE OF THE AUTHORITY
KRZYSZTOF CZABAŃSKI
A strange topic, isn’t it? But I must admit that I have a purpose in it: it concerns understanding that without work we will not achieve anything valuable, as the nation and as particular people. Without our hard work. A few months ago, in a permanent newspaper column in ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’, our known ski-runner presented her ordinary day of a summer training in the Spanish mountains, without any ornamental literary features. When one reads it, one gets a bad feeling. Waking-up time at 5.45. Coffee and swimming in a pool, then a bit of jogging and gymnastics. And breakfast. After that – riding a bike and a ride up to the altitude of 700 metres above the see up to 2300 metres. This route is 32 kilometres long. ‘The last five kilometers – writes Justyna Kowalczyk – is an extended finish line. Craziness. Lungs are terribly stinging. It is not allowed to get off a bike saddle by a trainer’. After the ride up, a few kilometers of jogging again, gymnastics and a shower. Then lunch and massage, despite of painful muscles. The competitor is so tired that she often falls asleep at the end of massage. And she is still going to have another training. Running for an hour and gymnastics at a gym. About 8 p.m. Kowalczyk is after dinner, but has no strength for anything else, neither to read, nor to think, nor to sleep.
Hard work, unbelievably hard. But when today there appeared hope for beneficial changes in Poland, for the authority which will start follow the Polish raison d’etat, it will start thinking about citizens and issues important for them, function for the sake of the public good – we must be aware that we should demand from politicians and ourselves, more than we did before. It is also going to be hard work. Maybe not as the one of Justyna Kowalczyk, but still hard. Because nothing will be done by itself. Poland will not get repaired by itself. This lies in our hands, as electors. After all, president Duda will not take out a magic wand. Although, certainly, it is a pity, speaking just among us.
AA
„Niedziela” 35/2015