Would it be wise to continue waiting for that Godot who does not appear, for whom we have been waiting for a long time and in the middle of a long road?
HAVANA, Cuba. – I have the impression that we have spent our lives waiting, waiting for something that is announced and that does not arrive, and there we are still, in the middle of a long, very long path, already waiting, and still, and planted, and with our gaze fixed on that long path along which, it is announced that a certain Godot should arrive, to that Godot for whom we have been waiting for a long, very long time, and who does not arrive.
And there is the path, there is the path along which Godot must appear, the path along which, so it is said, Godot’s steps must be taken, to definitively reach the point where he has been expected for a long time, perhaps too long, perhaps his entire life. And there we are now, all stranded at a fixed point, at a point that does not move even a little, at a point that does not expand and that does not grow and that does not flow.
Godot, for whom we have waited almost our entire lives, never arrives, and there we are, with our eyes fixed on the road, waiting and waiting. There we are, at the same point as always and with our gaze still. There we are, with our gaze immovable and in an instant that seems to be perpetual, that does not vary, that does not move even a little. There is everyone’s path, their entire life, there is the eternity of expectation, but Godot never appears in the distance, much less in the vicinity.
And where is Godot? Where is the Godot that never arrives? Where is Godot? Hidden perhaps? Where is that Godot who perhaps camouflages himself so as not to be discovered? Will he arrive by taking the left path? Will he take that path that opens further to the right? Will he arrive via the path on the left? Perhaps at that point where the path on the right forks with the path that was running a little further to the left?
We all wait for Godot, for that Godot who may arrive, for the one who may never arrive; However, we are all still waiting for a Godot who could appear somewhere, in one of those spaces that does not correspond to any place of belief. Godot could appear at a very distant point, a point that could only be visible there in the sky, perhaps in the deepest ground. Godot could find another system of beliefs, at a point that does not vary, at a point that has been inert forever, the one that we have been waiting for and that does not arrive.
Would it be wise to continue waiting for that Godot who does not appear, for whom we have been waiting for a long time and in the middle of a long road? We have waited a long time for an entity that does not appear, we have waited for the Godot who never appears, the Godot who hides and turns his back, the Godot who does not create commitments. We have waited for a fictional entity, for an absurd character who finds no place in any system of statements.
We are stranded in the middle of a path that is already becoming too long, and even reckless. We wait, we wait, we wait, and then it might be too late. It could be imprudent to wait for that entelechy that is Godot: when it appears, in the middle of the road, it could be too late. This is the time of appearance, and if it did not appear in the middle of that path we would have to invent it, and leave the stillness, and move forward, move forward with Godot and without Godot. Godot is an invention, he is a character of the absurd, and we are the truth in the middle of the most hazardous path.
Let’s not wait for Godot. Our time is this, and there will be no need to wait for Godot; In Cuba there are already too many like him, and we already know that they are very slow, too still. This is not the time of waiting, it is our time, it is not the time of Godot, nor of stillness, nor of perpetual waiting. This is our time, and not the time of waiting for Godot, which is very slow and regretful.
