A book that has accompanied me for a long time is On Connection by Kae Tempest. In this essay, written during the pandemic, he reflects on truthfulness, living together as a creative process, and at the same time a manifesto for more humanity has emerged. These are thoughts of a poetry worker about his creativity and being connected to the world that surrounds him. It's as if he were continuing Theodor W. Adorno's thought that there is no right life in the wrong one.

He has written a fine eyewitness account with this small volume in isolation during the pandemic. He poses the question in our isolated, social present space that we have forgotten to ask: How much value does the individual have in a social dynamic that constantly overstimulates us and often inflames our lives with hysteria that drives us further and further apart instead of connecting us? How do we live when our interests are constantly preoccupied with external values and we align ourselves with them, giving them more value than ourselves, forgetting the life of our own lives? How can we wake up from the fogginess through consumption and apathy through isolation? In doing so, his thoughts reach into the possibilities already present in us to escape the loneliness of the present.

Our humanitas is based on the strongest power we humans have: Our ability to connect. It's a superpower, so to speak. Connected to ourselves, to others, to the world. Truly great things can only come from connection. Truly moving things can only come about in connection. Real touching can only come from connection. Kae Tempest calls us to remember this capacity, this power. It is an appeal, a liberating thought,

comforting words and at the same time a help to remember what life is really about and that we carry the right life inside us to share with others: Being connected.

Bibiana Beglau, 2023