Many things in life happen in spite of us. Catastrophes, natural cataclysms, epidemics, wars – we would all like it not to happen. But it happens and happens, and every time we are surprised again. Is all this really happening without our input? Maybe one of us did something wrong, and most of us just didn’t do anything when something needed to be done urgently? And suddenly the dominoes began to fall, the world began to fall apart. Despite us? And yes, when the great collapse begins, it no longer cares about anyone, it no longer chooses who is guilty and who is innocent. But if you take a good look at this year’s festival sign – Apollo, broken into pieces, you can see another moment in it: those fragments, those pieces of the crumbling civilization are easily put back into a whole. All you need is diligence and patience. The Japanese have a separate method for repairing broken things, kintsugi – they join the cracks with gold. And such an item acquires an even greater value than when it was still healthy and whole. Finally, there is at least one thing in the world that really happens without our intervention. The name of that thing is a miracle. Infrequently, but miracles still happen in people’s lives. Despite us.