From Erika: The Genius of Bébel and Vyskočil
When I listened to the audiobook My Thousand Lives by Jean-Paul Belmondo (affectionately nicknamed Bébel), I was fascinated. It felt as if the world were a playground where everything is allowed and possible. A game without boundaries. Free, sometimes joyful, but also sad or even tragic. Yet within it there is simplicity, fullness, joy, and a desire to live and not give up.
Erika Merjavá
March 2026
From Erika: Life fights for life
Humanity is going through a difficult period. It is as if everything has darkened, and we are searching for at least a glimmer of a ray of light in the darkness that surrounds us.
Erika Merjavá
November 2025
From Erika: Building an Inner Temple — Opening Words
My son, if you truly need to explore mountains and valleys, the brightness of the sun and the stars, the heaviness of clouds and the lightness of the breeze, the dryness of the desert, the beauty and sorrow of life, to learn that good is good and evil is evil, if you want to feel a love that turns everything upside down, if you want and must experience all of this for yourself—very well. But listen to me for a moment. I will give you a few pieces of advice.
Erika Merjavá
September 2025
From Erika: The World According to Gelsomina
Play is a phenomenon of human existence. A world one can escape into. A weapon against sadness, meaninglessness, the tragic nature, and the incomprehensibility of human actions and the world. A space where a person can hide and experience the joy of simply being, where nothing else has a place. There is no fear, no gloomy thoughts, no anxiety, no uncertainty, no depression, no sadness, no awareness of one’s own weaknesses, imperfections, or failures. Because everything exists within the play itself. Try playing again sometimes. Be like a child. Experience being absorbed in your own play and existence. And then tell us what it was like for you.
Erika Merjavá
June 2025
From Erika: The Breath of Youth
If there were no young people—their desires, their appetite for life, their wish to change the world, and their belief in ideals—the world would look completely different. It would be something lifeless, almost deathlike. It is the “breath of life” Václav Havel spoke about—the force that brings change, that refuses to settle for a cage and wants to break out at any cost. It overcomes fears and the settled “staleness” of adults who have made themselves at home in their lives and their truths, and for whom it no longer seems worth it to change anything or fight for life.
Erika Merjavá
March 2025
From Erika: “Ehjé ašer ehjé”
The human mind spins at an extreme speed when the Sword of Damocles hangs above it. One does not know when it will fall, where it will strike, cut, or split. But one does not necessarily have to run away, as Damocles did. One can also remain still and observe what will happen. Perhaps it is not even dangerous—it only evokes fear so that it can strike. For this year’s original TALENT creation, the Sword of Damocles is saturated with defiance.
Erika Merjavá
November 2024
From Erika: We can never teach you the most important thing
A person becomes what path they choose. More precisely, they become who they wish to be. And according to that, they make small decisions that lead them toward that goal. Or let me try it another way.
Erika Merjavá
September 2024
From Erika: A Treasure in the Depths of Snowflakes
Allow me a brief reflection on the theme of vulnerability and fragility in the younger generation. I was led to this by conversations with our young people.
When we talked, they shared what troubles them and how they see their generation. What they have to deal with today, why they are so sensitive, and why some of them fall into self-harm or various psychological difficulties. I started to wonder whether they are truly that fragile, or what is actually going on. What kind of world surrounds them. What the “Snowflakes” generation has to face.
Erika Merjavá
June 2024
From Erika: On Freedom, Remaining a Child Forever
If I did not “teach” children and young people freedom, I would rather not teach at all. It would not interest me. Teaching technical skills in behaviour, communication, and creation, or training toward a pleasing artistic expression, is not enough. It is uninteresting, insufficient, unnecessary, and potentially manipulative. It can lead to self-display without a real relationship to the audience.
Erika Merjavá
April 2024
From Erika: Theme for authorial creation — I DON’T KNOW
When I was looking for this year’s theme for our authorial work in the groups, I wrote down about seventy possible topics on my home board. I liked all of them, and I couldn’t decide which one to choose. Then, quite by chance, I came across the theme “I DON’T KNOW.” It came from a Facebook post about Janusz Korczak, the Polish doctor and educator who chose to voluntarily go with the children from the orphanage where he worked to their death in the gas chamber in Treblinka. He fascinated me. What kind of person was he? What led him to such an unimaginable act of generosity and sacrifice?
Erika Merjavá
January 2024
