Dear reader, I have a confession to make. Many years ago, I met a high school friend. Her name I will keep to myself. She was a strong, dare I say fanatical, believer in the Catholic religion. Once, in an emotional conversation, she simply said “God loves you Matthew!” It must have been said at the right time and place because the orbs of my inner world suddenly started to turn.

As a young person, I loved science-fiction. My favourite writer was a famous Polish author Stanisław Lem. He is not as well known in English-speaking countries. However, many of his books were translated into multiple languages, including English. One of his novels, “Solaris,” was made into a movie, first in the USSR by Tarkovsky (1972), and later in the USA by Sodebergh (2002). Lem was not entirely a science-fiction writer. He actually gave up writing in standard science-fiction genre quite early.

Grandpa’s typewriter was my first writing instrument. Using it had advantages over scribbling. There was no need to learn to hold a pen, no risk of smearing. It even held the paper for me. The resulting text was usually perfectly legible, as long as the reader overlooked a few words that were X-ed out. Of course, I had to learn to read first! – at least well enough to be able to recognize characters shown on keys.