Hace 25 años, en una noche como esta, cientos de miles de berlineses, del Este y del Oeste, se reunieron alrededor del muro que, durante 28 años, había dividido dos mundos completamente diferentes. Cuando finalmente los controles se abrieron, poco antes de medianoche, la multitud se precipitó desde Berlín oriental. En el otro lado, los berlineses occidentales los recibieron con abrazos y botellas de champán.

Esta noche no sólo significó la reunión de amigos y familiares que llevaban décadas separados. Significó la caída de un sistema ya en decadencia que, con el pretexto de "servir al pueblo", coartaba las libertades de las personas y mantenía a un Estado tan monstruoso que se acabó destruyendo a sí mismo. Tan bien servía al pueblo ese Estado Soviético, que los alemanes occidentales estaban como locos por saltar el muro y vivir en el paraíso socialista... ¿o no? Los carteles en las manifestaciones en la DDR con el lema "Wir sind das Volk" (nosotros somos el pueblo), demostraban que el socialismo no estaba funcionando.

Porque, en un mundo en el que concurren millones de hechos imprevistos al día, es imposible pretender que un grupo de personas lo planifiquen todo. En un mundo en el que millones de individuos con ideas son capaces de aportar por sí mismos un granito de arena a la sociedad, impedirles llevar a cabo esas ideas para sustituirlas por unas cuantas medidas "para el bien común" (es decir, para el bien del Estado), supone una ruina para esa sociedad. Libertad es lo que una sociedad necesita para progresar. Y libertad es lo que los habitantes de la URSS no tenían.

Tanto el capitalismo como la democracia representativa tienen defectos, y muchos. Pero los berlineses del este que hace 25 años huyeron de la dictadura socialista tenían claro que ambos sistemas, económico y político, eran la alternativa menos mala para organizar nuestra compleja sociedad.

A dot

I just found this amazing article which is similar to the one I wrote some months ago, but, of course, it is better written than mine, considering that it was written by Carl Sagan (1934-1996), an astronomer who knew exactly how to get to our hearts by showing us the truth of our existence. Enjoy!

Image taken by the Cassini space probe showing the Earth from Saturn!

"Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."


Carl Sagan (1934-1996), Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, 1997 reprint

About beliefs

Hi everyone! After a long time without putting my ideas into virtual paper, I'm back on track.

As you may know, I am not exactly a religious person. Today I've had one of these long and tiring but interesting conversations about religion with a very good friend who is as certain that God exists as I am certain that God does not exist. We've talked, and talked and talked the same way we've done other times, and, of course, we haven't reached a definite conclusion (again). I've only been an atheist for a short time, but since I stopped believing, I kind of started looking down my nose at religious people. I thought I was more intelligent than them because I had come to the conclusion that we are alone on this Planet. And I just realized how wrong I actually was.

It doesn't matter what we believe or what we don't believe. Because a belief is just a point of view on a particular thing. In this case, it is the view on the answer to the questions related to our existence: "Where do we come from? Are we something more than a bunch of thinking organic matter? Is there life after death?". You've probably heard these questions lots of times. I think that science can and will eventually give us the answers to almost all of our questions. In fact, it has answered many of them already, but then again, there are people who think that these scientific answers are wrong and that the right answers to all of our questions can be found in the Bible, the Koran, the Tipitak (that's the Buddhist holy series of books) etc.

So, if religious people are happy with their believes, who am I to tell them that they're wrong? Even if I do think they are wrong, and even if it is ok for me to peacefully debate with them, I cannot and should not try to force them to think the same way I do, because (as Bon Jovi said) "It's my life", and we all have the right to live and think the way we want to, as long as we don't hurt or interfere with other people's lives. I can give them the reasons why I am not a believer and, if they want, they can say: "Mmh, I find your arguments reasonable, I'm going to question my own beliefs". In the same way, a religious person might give me such strong arguments to believe in a God that I might question my own point of view on the matter. But it has to be a personal choice, it should never be imposed, and neither I nor the religious person shall look down on the other one just because he or she thinks differently.

We're lucky enough, at least in The West and other developed areas, to live in countries were we've got freedom of expression and freedom of beliefs, and we've got to accept that not everyone thinks the same way: something that you might take for the truth, others might take for a mistake, and vice versa. We will never reach a point in which we all have the exact same thoughts. And that is  exactly the wonder of human diversity. If we all thought the same way, what a boring place the Earth would be! So be happy your own way, because happiness is not what other people say, but what makes you happy.

Goodbye, high school

Today was my last day of high school. I will not have one more day, one more hour or even one more minute of high school classes in my whole life. Usually, when the school year finishes, you've got Summer ahead of you, so you don't look back and you just enjoy your holidays. But now, I've finished classes but I do not have any holidays: I've still got to study for the Leaving Certificate by myself. I'm in a period now where I'm not a high school student any more, but I'm also not a undergraduate. It feels kind of weird, really, not "being" something that you've been for 6 years. Because, when you think about it, what we do is a part of us, it helps to define who you really are. Sure, you're not only a "student" or a "worker", you're much more than that, but it does influence your life: you get used to the atmosphere of the place you go to every day, you meet certain people with whom you've got to share every morning of a whole year (or six, or twelve years!), and eventually this place and these people enter your life and become part of it. Then, suddenly, one day it all ends, and you have to say goodbye to those people. Obviously, you're gonna see them again, it's not a final goodbye, but it's just not the same. You're not going to have the same relationship with someone you share moments and laughs every day than with someone you only see a few times a months, or even less...

I'm not making this up, I'm talking from my own personal experience. For the last three years I've moved school three times: In 10th grade I moved to a new high school, in 11th class I moved to Ireland and in 12th grade I've moved back to the high school I was before, but there were many new people in it that I didn't know. Even if I didn't mean to, I've lost contact with people that I used to be really good friends with, and I've found new ones. These things just happen, and I've had to admit it. Changes involve losing a part of your past, but I don't see it as a bad thing, because meeting other people does make you a more open-minded person: each of us has a different perspective of life (as Ortega said), and the more points of view you get to know, the more you actually get to know life as a whole.

Now, in September everything is going to change again with college. New places, new people... new me? I suppose. I don't think I'm the same person here than the person I was in Ireland. In the green country, I felt way more insecure about myself, because I was away from home (and the weather didn't really help), but the experience taught me to mature, and when I came back to Spain I was a very different person from the 15-year-old boy that went to Ireland in Summer of 2011. Of course, I'm not saying that I've already grown up completely, I've still got a long way to go, but step by step I feel closer to an adult person. And I like that, but, at the same time, I feel like I want to rewind and re-live some moments that I will never get back. Even though I don't quite realize it yet, I've just finished a very important part of my life that, and although I've wanted it to end in many occasions when I was stressed with exams, I have actually enjoyed and I will always remember with fondness.

However, I've still got the graduation party in a couple of weeks, which I'm really looking forward to. That will be the formal ending of this "era". But that night and the rest of the month will fly by so quickly that, before I know it, I'll have finished my Leaving Cert and I'll be finally enjoying my (deserved?) Summer holidays. And then, college... I can't quite believe it. But it seems so far away now, that I'm not really nervous about it. Not yet anyway. But then again, why should I? It is a change for the better, or so I'm told. Only time will tell. 

Being different

Sometimes, it's difficult to be different. That's probably why these two words are so similar. 
Today, my class and I went to a conference about "Selectividad" (the final exam we do in Spain before we start college) in a building not far away from my school. After that, we had to go back to class: we had Universal Literature. We were going to finish reading the Metamorphosis, Kafka's best book. The book is precisely about the topic I'm writing about today: how people who are different are rejected by society and often have to resign themselves to not being accepted.

Anyway, even though we had class, most people just wanted to go home, because it was the last period of the day. I understand that not everyone is as interested as I am in literature (not everyone is as "freak" as me), but they said that either all of us went to class or we all went home. It was only another girl and I who wanted to go in, but she said that she wouldn't go if nobody else went, so I was left alone with a decision to make: follow my will and go to a class I like by myself, with all the other people criticizing me at my back, or follow the crowd and go home. I finally chose the second one, feeling a bit sad that I hadn't done what I wanted to.

Of course, this little story is almost insignificant, but then, if you take the essence of it and see the big picture of the situation, you realize that these kind of things happen to us all the time, not only with small decisions like this, but also with things that actually have an impact on our lives. How many times have we stopped doing something we really wanted because of fear of what others might think of it? Whether we want it or not, we live in a society with other people, and majorities can easily defeat the individual. Even if we are against something because we think it's wrong, we sometimes support it (or at least we don't argue about it) just because most people do so! Let's take politics, for instance. I am sure that there have been many politicians who have had new ideas in order to change the situation of their country , but they have been unable to put them into practice because their ideas clashed with the interests of certain people, and they've had to choose between doing the right thing or keeping their reputation among the ones who surround them.

And this is how we let ourselves be influenced by others, because that is how the world works: it's mostly a chain of interests. If you don't follow the flock, then you're going to be the black sheep. But is being different really that bad? I mean, the most important people in history are important precisely because they've been different. If they had stopped following their ideals in order not to be "weird", we would not have many of the wonders we have now, like electricity, cinema or the internet! There are times when you do have to cope with what others say in order to fit in, but never let your personality be lost, and if you think you have a great idea or you are completely against something, just say it! As Jim Morrison said, "The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are."

El hastío de Don Quijote

Hi! Today I'm gonna make a little parenthesis to my thoughts, an I'm going to make way to a poem that I've written for a poetry competition in high school, which, for my surprise, I have won. I wanted to share it with all of you to see what you think of it (whether or not you speak Spanish, poetry is like music, it is universal).

Before I show it to you, I want to say that the poem is about the suffering of Don Quixote when he realizes that his ideal of reality, where beauty and justice are above anything else, is exactly the opposite of the reality he lives in: a cruel and unfair world. This contrast makes him feel weariness (hastío) and emptiness and, inspiring myself in "Les fleurs du mal" by Baudelaire, I put these feelings into words. Here it is:

Dulce tarde en primavera
a mitad de su camino
un pobre diablo espera
alcanzar a su destino.

Un bravo y fiel escudero
a su lado le acompaña
y teme que al caballero
ya le aceche la guadaña.

Su rostro blanco y cansado
y su alma, limpia y pura
tristemente han aceptado
que en el mundo no hay mesura.

Esas rosas coloradas
sangre de cobra parecen
esos mirlos en las ramas
de hastío y rabia perecen.

Los esclavos de galeras
por él fueron liberados
pues de muy injusta manera
habían sido condenados.

Piedras clavan en sus sienes
los que ahora de paz gozan
¿dónde está el honor de quienes
tras sufrir el odio, brotan?

¡Oh, Tierra perdida!
¡Oh, Venus dorada!
que todo mi ideal de vida
se desvanece en la nada

Deciden llamarme loco
esos que sufren locura
capaces de, por muy poco,
tornar su alma en oscura.

Este hidalgo caballero
con valor marcó una senda
porque el Mal es aún certero
sigue viva su leyenda.

Fear to fail

Sometimes, I just feel melancholic. There isn't always a specific reason for that feeling: there might be many, there might be none. Today, I was thinking how fragile we humans are. One day we think we are going to eat up the world, next day we feel all alone, even if we know that there are great people who will always be by our side. But why is it? What keeps us back from going out there and do anything we want, make our dreams come true, look for the new? There is a fear that we all have, a fear to fail. If we have a goal, we set high expectations, but then we are afraid that the actual thing may not live up to these expectations. Telling a person your true feelings for her is one of these situations. 

Personally, I tend to dream too much each time I fall for a girl. I don't know why, but I picture that girl and I in the near future, sitting together in my terrace, hugging, kissing, feeling like the happiest people alive. For a moment, I actually feel that happiness, but then I come back to reality and realize that that perfect moment hasn't happened yet, and I start to worry: What if that moment never comes? What if everything goes wrong? I suppose that's a quite pessimistic view, but doesn't that happen to all of us?  

Other times we stand up and say: "Well, I'm going to go for it." But then, when you see yourself in front of that person with whom you've been having all these passionate dreams about, you stand back, you think that it's impossible and that it is easier if you just stay the way you are. Afterwards, when you're by yourself again, you regret not having said anything and think: "This time, oh yes, this time I'm gonna do it!". You see her again, and when you're about to tell her, you get the fear in your stomach and reject your plans once more. It can be a never ending thing, but that is how fear works.

Of course, there are also times when you are able to fulfill your expectations about that girl or boy you like, and these are the times when you see that it is worth being brave and conquering your dreams, and that there is no point in fearing the new. This doesn't just apply to love relationships, it applies to anything new that you are willing to do but are too afraid that it might end up badly. My conclusion is: If you really want something but you're scared of failure, just think that you've got much more to win than to lose, so don't overthink it and take a chance!