They say that when we renovate our house, we also reform our soul. This is what we hope will happen to us at the end of this battle. We've been renovating ours for a long time, and the most complicated thing is that this renovation is happening with us inside it. True fire test, a great test of patience and resistance.

The inconveniences of the breaker are enough to drive even the holiest of men or the holiest of women mad. Noise, dust, limestone, discomfort. . .And the most terrible thing on the list, in our situation: lack of privacy. Oh! My God! Take away the sun and the moon, but don't take away our privacy.

However, that's how we've been surviving lately, like in a big camp, living in improvisation: black canvas delimiting spaces, covering furniture, obscuring everything.

In my room, entrenched, I hear the deafening sound of the roof being removed. The onomatopoeic noises on the slab exasperate me.

In the midst of the struggle, taking refuge in my bed, I try to relax. In my hands, LIVES, the fifteenth book authored by the colleague Wanderlino Arruda, professor, writer, lawyer, researcher, journalist, artist, poet.

This man of a thousand and one trades invited me to preface his book. An indeclinable invitation that I accepted promptly and happily.