Let’s see… Sometimes there are certain things in our heads that simply make our existence the very definition of a mess… Debts, subscription payments, uncomfortable family commitments, and that constant mental reminder where the battle against ourselves never stops… You know, that feeling of a monologue we usually have between one action and another. In my case, while I’m walking, without music, or on public transportation on my way home or going anywhere else.
Whoever told you, or insisted to you, that life is only about work and nothing else is hiding behind it a deep bitterness they don’t know how to counteract. But this post is not about moral judgments or philosophical stances, but rather a creative response to one of this community’s principles: Show me a reflection, show me a shadow. And that is precisely what I’m going to do. I’m at a moment in my life where opening myself to nonconventionality is an essential part of my day to day. For example, I discovered the magic of Queens of the Stone Age’s rock. A band I didn’t know until a couple of weeks ago, and that now accompanies me even in intimacy.
Also, the other day I had the courage to stand up to my supervisor at work. A woman who must not have much sex with her husband, and yes, she is married, that’s not a conjecture, and who makes the vast majority of my coworkers’ days, and mine, a combination of absolute unhappiness and frustration. Being despotic is something common in my country, unfortunately. But I put her in her place, and this time I didn’t end up on the street regretful for defending myself. I had the strange improbability of being backed in my complaint by our boss. That, in itself, is an even more extraordinary and beautiful miracle, but enough about work.
My daughter learned to Google and do her school assignments on her own. She’s ten years old. She uses the laptop I gave her when she was nine better than many people I know. She still doesn’t know the most famous apps of the moment, like ChatGPT or Gemini, TikTok, but she develops her curiosity like I did in 2003. Searching for meaning to my tormented adolescent existence in the lyrics of Linkin Park and Avril Lavigne songs. She discovered Jane Austen, and I think she has found a new heroine. It may be time for her to watch Pride and Prejudice on Netflix and start to love cinema as art too.
Shadows, more than just a reflection of everything that exists, are the description of the photographs in this post. Postcards from an afternoon when, while I was taking a short walk through my neighborhood, I couldn’t help noticing how beautiful some things we take for granted are. I now understand some of the things highlighted in this community. These are turbulent times in Venezuela, as everyone knows, but life goes on, art goes on, worries and their solutions too. One can and should keep moving forward, without turning complaint into a habit, but normalizing the custom of being able to express myself without feeling guilt or weariness. We live to experience, and the ideal is to live without any apparent pettiness. There you have it, the summary of the last five days. Ending the week, and making a brief communication. As they say in Stranger Things: Over and out!
