IF I ONLY COULD...
Last time I have been with my best Friend, I did not know it would be the last time. One never knows... Because of that, I treated him as if it were not, as if we could have many other meetings, in our life. It was not meant to be.
If I could be with him, once more, I would tell him how grateful I am for all he did for me, for his hard work of so many years transformed into food, clothing, housing and education for me, my brothers and sisters;
I would tell him how much I have learned with his teachings, his honesty, loyalty and kindness, with his occasional justified anger, his frequent moments of tenderness;
I would tell him how his blessings have been worthy for me, the ones he shed over my young man's heart with the generosity of someone who loves, when I asked for them and even when I did not;
I would tell him that I still have his advices, words of simple and pure wisdom, as a lighthouse guiding my steps and that his Grandson has been hearing them from me;
Ah, if I knew then, that it would be the last time... I would not only have told him that in our next life he would be my son, so that I could give him back, at least part of all the good he did to me. I would also have hugged him and our embrace would be so long that it would not end, so warm that it would never let the farewell winter come, as it came, few months later, when I was far away.
I did not know... Now, I only have the comfort of having given his name to my Son, a way I found to honor both of them, to bring them together, to make him, my best Friend, the Guarding Angel of his Grandson, also.
If I only knew... and after being convinced that I could do nothing to avoid our separation, I would have fallen on my knees and asked, for the last time, his blessing. And I would have told him: thank you, Papa!
(Barcelona, 16 October 2004)
PRO-OTHERISM
Enough anti-this, anti-that, anti-something else! Human kind must say enough is enough to prejudices, evil of many faces present all over the world.
We must take the final war against this heinous feeling, spreading the idea of the combat against the anti-otherism, incapacity of someone to accept someone else due to difference not of Character but color, sexual orientation, religion, social status or any other.
Homes and schools must teach children to respect people's differences, their habits and ways, whenever this does not come from prejudicial ideas and is not used to disrespect the others. Men should be measured by their Virtues, only.
Respect to someone else's ideas does not imply, necessarily, in agreeing with them. Discordance is, many times, the most honorable manifestation of respect towards someone else. The important thing is that, when disagreeing with one idea, we should not disrespect the person who it originated from. We must be able to separate, and well, the two things.
Divergences resulting from prejudices can - and they have done that - make a man to attack his neighbor, his brother and, at the end, take nations to war, to destruction and death.
We must be all time careful so that words escaping through our lips may not represent, be able to induce or - by omission - to feed any kind of prejudicial feelings.
We should be always alert so that the evil germ of prejudice does not install itself in our souls and, from there, reach our thoughts and actions in its peculiar, sneaky and vile way.
I suggest the creation of the Pro-Otherism Movement, positive way of fighting its opposite. The needed software and its installation in our hearts should be free and the program should be found in a universal server: www.Reason.we.
Barcelona, Spain