A step forward for our children and our grandchildren!

In my last entry I told you that in the summer I was going to meet Georgina in Europe, and together we were going to escape to France to see some nephews in Lyon. All this plan was made to fulfill the commission of my dear cousin Carmen to save "our world under the music tree". So in July, I took a plane to Madrid and from there we traveled to France. My grandchildren Martha and Max Jr. came with me.

In Spain we had the opportunity to visit a few of my favorite places: the Royal Palace, the National Auditorium, and of course the Prado Museum, where there was a fantastic exhibition of "Treasures of the Hispanic Society of America", a foundation in which my aunt Clara Luisa worked most of her life, and which never miss visiting when I'm in New York.

In some of our quiet moments, and when we were in my old family house, the memory of Carmen came to us. After all, she had given us the excuse for this family meeting in Europe. When Georgina and her husband J.M. met Carmen, she was living alone in our grandparents' old house in the village. They helped her to get back in touch with some family members who had made their lives so far away that they came neither to stay nor to visit. She decided she had to look for an heir for what were to her the "treasures of the past,", and during that search, she ended up giving of her most precious objects to those who could best use them for good. Carmen understood that all those "treasures" deserved a new life.

I promised her to keep alive the spirit of that house, full of our wonderful experiences of childhood, our extraordinary family times: preparing party snacks with the grandmother, playing in the garden with the music of the grandfather that came from the window of the library, the games of chess, football, the paintings on the porch... We were such happy children and we learned so much there! In the journals that I wrote in my adolescence, I explain some of that. Then, the last Christmas we spent together, Georgina and I promised Carmen we would try to publish those humble booklets somehow. My grandchildren Martha and Max also said they would help us. Then, Georgina began to illustrate them and gave them the title of "Max's adventures under the tree of music".

In most homes there are "treasures from the past" as in every family there are specific objects and memories that evoke a person or a moment. This is what makes them look like they were alive. My granddaughter Martha says that this is absurd, that objects have no life, no matter how precious they are to you. And she's right. However it is also true that there are objects that have accompanied you in your experiences and trigger your memory, and if the memory is good, it is tempting to stay there. This is what happened to Carmen for most of her life, until she realized that her treasures could become the source of new experiences for others as they had been for her, so far. Moreover, Carmen decided that these objects could inspire the adventures of the youngest of the family. That is why she gave Arthur and Émilie, our dear nephews from Lyon, the old trunk of our Aunt Ursula full of her precious hats, turbans and other vintage clothes... Arthur is a pianist and Émilie is a singer and actress. We went to visit them, and Émilie told us the wonderful project she is starting after Carmen's gift... So our journey to Lyon was really promising... For now, I leave here a little "postcard" with our walk in this lively city.

Émilie's ideas triggered our enthusiasm, and for Martha, they were especially inspiring. Since she is very young and passionate for her engineering studies, she has challenged us to catch up if we want our legacy to survive. Advances in Artificial Intelligence will certainly bring changes in the ways human beings exchange messages or contents, including Art and Music. Progress may sound amazing and raise as much fear as admiration, and they can end up fascinating many of us. My only concern is that this could leave many at the mercy of machines. And this is the reason why Georgina and I (and my grandchildren, of course) we will have to seek allies in the new technologies to leave the traces of our good old world in the most updated and useful way. That is why we are determined to find friends and collaborators who work in Virtual Reality, in Blockchain... As Georgina says, "no matter the media, it's the message that counts".

Georgina and I also hope all those friends who have been with us, so far, will join our adventure, and that we will also make new friends along the way, to leave our most human footprint to future generations... I will take this step for my children and grandchildren! Will you?

Max