Why did I start writing this? Because I believe that we do not see the world as it is, but as we are. Our beliefs form a screen through which we see the world. I grew up seeing and receiving a culture that I often clashed with and had to confront. That narrow view that can exist in a small town and within a family with little education can be very “emasculating” and hopeless. To live believing what I was told or what I saw, sometimes it was mandatory to be at peace with the rectum. In my environment, there were many people remembering the obligatory nature of believing and respecting the system, the institutions, especially the religious, political and social ones.

That tiny world was my world until I entered university and began not only to read other types of books (literature, philosophy), but also to converse, to live with other types of people. The micro-world in which I had grown up began to widen as I processed in my brain a lot of information that even my family did not know. I can say that I served, at one point, as a window for my family to look through me to realities they did not know. How did I do that? By talking to them about what I read, what I listened to, what others who came from far away had seen and experienced.

Traveling also provided me with elements to question, to not believe, to know how to differentiate, but especially to know myself and recognize myself in others. As I appreciated other landscapes, as I met other people, I could be more sure of what I wanted to be and do, and what I did not want to become.

But 2016 came and I felt that many of the things I had believed in, faded away. For example, for many years I gave importance to education, as a teacher it is my duty to do so, but when the crisis arrived in my country and I saw great intellectuals in destitution, I realized that having studies is not enough to survive in this jungle: the human being must have the ability to “reinvent himself” (this is a word that has become fashionable in Venezuela). As the ancient saying goes: “The wind does not break the tree that knows how to bend”.

In the last 10 years I have seen more transformations and changes in the world than I have seen in my entire life. They are dizzying changes of such depth that we could say that the ability to adapt and find happiness in adverse circumstances has become crucial. The economic, political, social crisis, the pandemic, A.I., materialism, manipulation, make it clear that the world can be a threat, but we should not close our thoughts: changes are inevitable.

In short, the reality in which I live today is new to me. It is not because I have changed city or country, but because my vision of the world has changed. I have seen with my own eyes the color of fury, love, sadness, hunger. No one has told me, I have lived it and as Humboldt said: “The most dangerous vision of the world is that of people who have not seen the world”.

The images are from my personal gallery and the text was translated with Deepl

This is my participation this week for our great friend @ericvancewalton's initiative: Memoir monday. If you want to participate, here's the link to the invitation post

Thank you for reading and commenting. Until a future reading, friends