Free Expression Is Getting Rusty

Wednesday 6 May 2020

It’s another beautiful day. The sun is high in the sky, which is as azure blue as ever. From my window I can see shadows on the side of the protruding building to my right which, whenever I want to snap the Eiffel Tower, always ends up on the right-hand side of my photos.

The temperature is supposed to hit 20°C this afternoon, which will be quite a bit hotter than the winter throwback yesterday.

The other day, when I was coming back from the supermarket, I forgot to mention that I saw a community noticeboard outside the walls of a private Polish seminary. The board was completely bare; without the pieces of paper that would usually decorate it, it was pure metal and rust. The bronze-coloured rust patterns on the top three-quarters of the board called to mind a rough Rothko painting. There was even some graffiti on the bottom, as if it had been signed by the abstract expressionist himself. At the same time, the words Expression libre were printed across the top of the board, making it seem more like a piece of street art than the community noticeboard it wasn't doing a good job of being.

Yesterday morning I went for another jog. I wanted to break my habit of going outside every other day, and because I heard it might rain in the afternoon, I made a point of getting my exercise out of the way…