Is truth able to save, or has it become something to avoid in debates because it is dangerous to one’s patrimony? Are truth and money compatible? Can they live with one another, or does one exclude the other? In my experience, once you start telling the truth, money starts to exercise, because if it is not fit, it has no chance of surviving. Money knows that it allows access to the truth, but truth is a war nowadays, and money will have to deal with heavy losses on its side throughout the battles. When truth goes up, money goes down. The result is hard to deal with. On the other hand, a world of lies is going to fall under the weight of the fear of the truth. It is not about the truth anymore; it is the fear that guides the reaction.

I find the situation of the Bach family of composers telling: the father did not have the fame he has today during his lifetime, while it seems that his son was highly successful in those times. It is a question of current fame versus possible future high recognition. It is clear that risk is high not only in business, but also when it comes to having, or not having, long-lasting glory. Can one sacrifice social recognition, bonuses, vacations, and fun for a longer perspective, under the pressure of failure? The current time is different from everything history has seen so far; that is for sure. Is it carpe diem in another form? Is a connection to the past possible? Probably, if history is correct. If one sells lies as propaganda and leaves the historical data hidden, probably not.

Personal truth is one thing; national truth is much more complex and complicated. In Romania, it is about monarchy and communism, because we are the result of this duality that has existed in our history. The demons of the past are still haunting us, along with the eternal pursuit of conflict as a way to run from ourselves. Who has the right to judge the past? Nowadays, we are putting our faith in the hands of justice to find answers. Should justice decide about history? I dare say no. We owe history the truth. This is the answer.

Tempus regit actum (Time rules the act). This is what the law says, and I think this is the principle to follow also in terms of history. History is there for us to understand ourselves better, to enjoy progress, and to pay attention to stalemates and downfall. We, today, are the result of thousands of years of evolution, and we should enjoy the miracle of our existence and survival as a species on Earth. We cannot dislike history, because that would mean denying our own existence. Without history, we would never have been born, so we cannot attack our own evolution.

I was born in communism, to parents who moved to Bucharest from another part of the country. I did not even hear about monarchy in Romania until the 1989 Revolution, and I think even later than that. It is funny nowadays, because my students gave me the impression that absolute monarchy could be a serious constitutional option for the future of Romania. Quite an interesting situation, I have to admit! If I think about myself and the fact that, for a long time, I thought that communism started in Romania after the fall of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, just because all the history books I looked into had no information about monarchy, I imagine a similar scenario happening today.

I asked one of my teachers in Berlin during a scholarship whether we learn something from our history in order not to repeat it, and he said that, if that were so, the study of history would no longer be necessary and history teachers would be out of jobs. Romania has a tumultuous history, and the change from monarchy to communism, and now from communism to local capitalism (“people-oriented capitalism,” I think this is how it is called), is challenging. In my opinion, both monarchy and communism were highly successful in society, even if the statement sounds quite nonsensical. There are still many achievements to be admired and preserved from monarchy, yet the same is true of communism.

The image I have in mind is central Bucharest: on one side, you have the royal palace, with the music hall built during the monarchy, and on the other side, a huge cultural building with blocks shaped in the form of an amphitheater in front of it, from communist times. If I am not mistaken, the communist ensemble was designed by an architect who also made buildings while Romania was a kingdom. Those in favor of monarchy despise communism and, likewise, fans of communism reject the legacy of the monarchy.

Some things are certain: my parents would not have been able to reach a high level of professional achievement if communism had not existed, and that would mean I would be out of the picture, which would be a real shame, because I am an interesting part of the current picture. Also, Bucharest would not have been an architectural beauty if King Charles II had transformed it into an Art Deco city. Communists could have erased the entire monarchical legacy and destroyed all the beautiful buildings in Bucharest, and Romania could never have achieved its fabulous development in all fields without the presence of King Charles I, Queen Marie, and the rest of the royal family in the country.

Big mistakes were made as well: communists took people’s private property and destroyed modern business; they allowed a large number of Romanian citizens to leave the country on ethnic and financial grounds, which created a vacuum and a decrease in population; the monarchy dealt rather badly with the personality of King Charles II, and that heavily favored the rise of communism. At this point, it is unclear to me whether our identity is more monarchic than republican, or the other way around, but until we look our history in the eye, we stand no chance of breathing calmly. Nobody else can do that for us, and running away from the truth is not an option.

Growth can begin only with the truth; otherwise, it is like a house without a proper foundation: it collapses very fast and loses its value. In other words, it is a bad investment. It’s hard, because for me it is also difficult to accept the truth about myself and what has happened to me and move on, although I still need some answers that no one is willing to give me, but I do not see any way forward. Just using the truth that is known, hoping that the rest of it will appear sometime in the future, and meanwhile focusing on personal progress. For the time being, I am in the perfection of imbalance, waiting for more truth to come and restore balance, but, at the same time, trying to accept the possibility that this extra truth will never come.

I do not believe that Romania will be able to progress until it deals properly with its natural resources and its human resources. Our evolution in history is built upon a close connection to nature and our ambition to be better than others in all possible fields. If we destroy our natural environment and, with it, the premises for healthy physical and mental growth, we lose a part of our identity and a part of our defense, because nature has helped us a lot throughout history to defend ourselves. When it comes to our mental health, let us just say that beauty nurtures the good, so beautiful buildings left unrestored, or the absence of new plays, poems, or music, certainly do not help.

It is not about money; it is about smartness and influence. Money is never enough. But it is true that, when there is too little of it, one cannot have a long-term vision. Continuous resilience depends on perpetual physical and mental strength, and that is nearly impossible for a human being by definition. History has changed so much. After a war, the world used to have peace, and so on and so forth. Currently, there are so many resources available for all sides in all conflicts that it is impossible to foresee an end to them. The world has created so many mechanisms and tools that each person is able to continue in the current manner for an indeterminate amount of time.

And the concept of mentorship is just a memory from other times. This is a big loss, from my point of view. Mentorship is needed, not pure imitation. Mentorship means influence and the power to adapt the knowledge of a person above you to your own life experience and desires; it is a form of adaptation. It can lead to growth, financial or otherwise, to resilience, or it can simply remain a good life lesson or a life experience.

Who has a hidden ace up their sleeve? That is the question of the moment.