Today for you, tomorrow for me
On this subject, I remember a story by the Venezuelan writer Luis Manuel Urbaneja Achelpohl, entitled Ovejón. Ovejón is a famous tale that tells the story of a beggar who encounters a man who is being persecuted by justice. The fugitive is called Ovejón and is a man who supposedly kills and steals on the roads. At the beginning of the story we are told that this character is persecuted, but has managed, in a mysterious way, to hide, evade justice:
Nobody had seen him, but the armed people who followed him from Zuata, running over the path, said so. They sounded the alarm... Ovejón, as usual, had disappeared in the sight of their persecutors... the bandit spread before them like a blinding fog and escaped. Ovejón. Ovejón knew many prayers.
On those roads, wandered the beggar who is described as a man with many hardships and shortcomings:
A filthy and broken beggar, his face, thick lips and cetrine skin slapped, full of knots and pustules, painfully dragged a huge, swollen, deformed foot, where the erect fingers resembled small horns under a cracked and scaly skin.
The beggar, who finds it difficult to walk, falsely steps on one of the stones of the road and falls into the river. In the midst of wails and cries for help, there appears a man who was hidden in the undergrowth. This man, without much thought, throws himself into the river to rescue the poor wounded man:
The man threw himself into the river, as if the beggar were a child, took him under his arms and gently pulled him out onto the slope. The beggar was all ayes and lamentations. His rotten, bruised flesh, there was no way to touch it. The deformed ankle bled. A ñaragato with its curves and sturdy thorns would deeply tear those flabby meats. Thick tears were buttoned to the edge of his swollen eyelids.
Before the deplorable state of the beggar, the man, without any scruple or disgust, began to heal his wounds. With delicacy, as if he knew the beggar, as if that man were his friend, he washed the wounds. When he saw that the sores did not stop bleeding, he looked among the branches for some leaves and made with them a kind of paste that he then placed on top of the lesions. Miraculously, the beggar's lacerations began to heal:
When the blood waned, the man applied the bandage. Not even the slightest purple shadow dyed the sapwood of silk. A smile of satisfaction pointed to the man's lips. The beggar murmured:
-Thank you... I am cured.
As we can see, this is the first gesture of gratitude of the beggar, who feels that by saying those words he returns, in one way or another, the favor he has received. After this, the man gives money to the beggar, who, moved and moved, wants to kiss their hands, but the man does not leave him and goes away, not before telling him:
-Today for you, tomorrow for me.
The beggar came to the village and finds in him that the man nicknamed Ovejón is being persecuted in order to kill him. The beggar knows that the man who helped him is Ovejón, so when they ask him if he has seen him, the beggar says no, that he has never seen him and makes the persecutors take another direction. Later on, he even commits an atrocious act such as killing an animal, only so that they don't find Ovejón's whereabouts and catch him. The beggar does it out of gratitude, because he understands the meaning of the words "Today for you, tomorrow for me", pronounced by Ovejón.
As we could see, to be thankful is not only to give thanks. It is also an emotion of correspondence with the other. Of reciprocity and even of unconditionality. Obviously, people should not be doing favors hoping to be rewarded for that. No. He does it selflessly, but the one who receives the favor must remember the good gesture they have had with him. Gratitude is not something that comes from the mind but from the heart.
In short, we must make room in our lives for gratitude. Studies show that grateful people are happier because instead of worrying about what they lack, they are grateful for what they have. American writer William Arthur Ward said: To feel gratitude and not express it is like wrapping a gift and not giving it. So the next time you feel gratitude, not only express it, but also show it. Suddenly with this action you not only get more favors from that person but also from life.
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