In the news a crime was reported, last night. It sounded very strange. A ninety year old man killed his eighty year old wife and then committed suicide. He left a note explaining why.

A crime of passion? At ninety? Did he discover some indiscretion from decades ago or what?

This morning we were told the contents of his suicide note. The couple decided to go this way, because they could not bear to burden their children any more.

Yesterday, on the way home at the electric train station, an announcement:

“Owing to a suicide, the trains do not run between station A and station B.”

Just like that. Impersonal. Matter of fact. “Owing to suicide.”

That is the state of Greece today.