The last fifteen meters

 

“There are people who await the end on their knees, resigned, or who try to ingratiate themselves with the executioner. 

There are others, the minority, who try to run. 

They try to be free and to live at least those fifteen meters of freedom. 

It is not much, because in the end the bullet arrives anyway. But during those fifteen meters in which he runs, that person is free. 

Those fifteen meters are called love, friendship, dignity, decency, charity, honesty, courage, compassion, solidarity. 

In those fifteen meters, apparently very short, the human being can achieve truly important things. 

All the differences, in my opinion, between people, lie in how they run or do not run those fifteen meters. 

This is the true, free will within general rules created by a world now devoid of feelings.” 

Arturo Pérez-Reverte