“When I was little I lived huddled in a dark street. The sea was humid there, but the sun was cheerful there”. This is how one of Joan Maragall's poems begins, masterfully recited by actor Jep Barceló in the show Maragall at home, a splendid monologue woven from articles, poems, and correspondence from one of the most listened-to voices in Catalonia at the turn of the last century. The show takes place in what was the dining room of Maragall's house, in Barcelona's Sant Gervasi neighborhood. In this room every afternoon, at five o'clock, punctually, the couple had tea (Joan Maragall's wife, Clara Noble, was of English origin on her father's side).

Today I'm taking a brief break from my economics articles. On Saturday night, at the Palau de la Música, the show about Maragall that I had the privilege of composing and which the newspaper ARA co-produced premiered. Before returning to my usual topics, I feel I must simply say thank you. To everyone.

Being reborn after an accident: it sounds like a cliché, but we can't forget that clichés are often deeply ingrained truths. Or, at least, rhetorical fossils with a kernel of truth at their core. Just ask economist and writer Fernando Trias de Bes, who about a year and a half ago suffered a serious car accident that could have killed him, but from which he emerged reborn and creatively liberated.

A year and a half ago I was in a serious car accident in which I almost lost my life. It was nighttime. I was driving towards Seville. A girl sped towards me on a two-lane road. I was hit several times and ended up off the road, crashed into a wall.