Loyalty

I believe in being loyal to the ones that are near to us.

But I fear to have ignored that believe one time in the past few days. I was being loyal to someone I didn't knew, and was hiding something to someone I know, just because I thought that if I didn't hide it, I would end up hurting that person. I guessed wrong and today I'm just sorry that I talked with my sister about that so late. It turns out she is really good with advices.

I ended up telling what I was hiding, and I fear that the lateness of my act may have hurt the confidence that that person had in me.

So here is a great advice that my little sister gave me: always tell the truth to the ones near you, even if you don't think it's the best solution.

One of my favourite sentences is from a mini cartoon I once saw in a website:

Her secret was this: While most people searched forever for the needle, she enjoyed the hay .

Well I believe I'm only now learning how to enjoy the hay… and that I spent more time than I should searching for the needle. The funny part is that we all used to enjoy the hay, but then felt we needed to grow up… and blew it up.

Enjoying the hay gives me less superfluous worries, but deeper concerns with what really matters. If someone would say to me just a couple of years ago that I wouldn't care what was the model of my cellular, or the make of my coat, I would say no way.

My goal in life is still the same, my greatest ambition is exactly the same… I want to be happy. The only thing that changed is the path I'm taking to get there, I really though I would be very happy if I had money and power… today I couldn't careless. Of course I still want money… but I have no need of being rich. I just want enough to have a comfortable life… and you'll have to trust me, when I say that comfort for me doesn't mean a super car, or a very big house.

I'm just crossing my fingers to continue like this for a long, long, long time.

Well… talk about a coincidence… Last night I was trying to explain how I felt happiness and money had nothing to do with each other… And today, well I spent almost all my day watching cartoons… and I was seeing one of Charlie Brown that had a song that said it all… so for the first time in my blog, and against everything I used to think… here is the lyrics…

From "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown"

Happiness is finding a pencil.
Pizza with sausage
telling the time.
Happiness is learning to whistle.
Tying your shoe for the very first time.

Happiness is playing the drum in your own school band.
And happiness is walking hand in hand.
Happiness is two kinds of ice cream.
Knowing a secret.
Climbing a tree.
Happiness is five different crayons.
Catching a firefly.
Setting him free.

Happiness is being alone every now and then.
And happiness is coming home again.
Happiness is morning and evening,
day time and night time too.
For happiness is anyone and anything at all
that's loved by you.

Happiness is having a sister.
Sharing a sandwich.
Getting along.
Happiness is singing together when day is through,
and happiness is those who sing with you.
Happiness is morning and evening,
daytime and nighttime too.

For happiness is anyone and anything at all
that's loved by you.

Portugal has a new publicity spot, it says: Bet in your dreams… National Lottery 10 million euros.

Is it me or is it just sad if your biggest dream has to do with owning a lot of money?

I believe I can be happy without a lot of money, of course it's necessary to eat, to have some comfort in life, but I'm not talking luxury. I think the most important things in life haven't got anything to do with money… being able to respect myself, believing someone, understanding and helping someone with a problem, make someone smile just because you're there… I could go on and on, and none of these things have to do with money.

Most people believe that in order to be happy, to have their dreams come true, they need a great car, an awesome holidays or the most luxurious house they can think of. I'm glad I disagree. The house of my dreams only has to fill some requests that aren't at all dreams. I want it to be cosy, to have a fireplace and preferably a good view. I don't need a big house, a huge living room, or a TV that costs what I wouldn't pay for ten TV's. I need my books, but I don't need a library, in fact I prefer the way it is right now… lots of books all spread by the house. I don't need to have a great car (yes I like to see good cars, but I don't crave any… I also like Manet but I wouldn't bye a painting of him, even if I had the money for that) or to make fancy trips. I like to keep it simple, and I believe I can be extremely happy that way.

I have no intention to be extremely well succeeded in professional terms because I truly believe that I'll have a family and I intend to spend lots and lots of time with them. I understand that society has to be motivated to buy, to consume, to crave, I'm just glad I was left out of that vicious circle.

My entire life is about routine. I'm used to do the same things everyday the same way, and to tell you the truth I don't want to change that.

Well I never want to change anything, but lately everything that has changed in my life has been a good surprise, for example:

I trained karate for 10 years but in the beginning of the year I stopped going. The truth is that I was just being lazy, but the result was that I got more time to do other things. Although I'm very lazy, I also hate having nothing to do, so I started to read more, something that for whatever reason, in the last few years, I had done very little.

Another example I've never enjoyed the beach very much, so I used to avoid going many times to it (in fact I only went when I was drag to it by my parents or colleges), but the last few years I started to go to the beach every chance I got… I ended up finding one of the great loves of my life… the sea.

Another… during prep school I had French for three years, and during those three years I meet the three worst teachers of French that exist on the planet... I end up hating French, and as I was pretty good in English, I ended up with the idea that I didn't need to know any more languages. Last September a friend of mine told me about some French classes that wore going to happen near me. I'm still trying to understand why I did it, but the reality is that I loved the classes... not because of the teacher (I continue to think I know the worst FOUR teachers of French in the all history), but because I actually learned something… I ended up understanding French texts and that for me is a great achievement. I also meet some great people in those classes, and the idea of escaping the routine of computer classes and computer nerds every Tuesday and Thursday, made the semester end more quickly and with better humour… That's probably the first time that it happens to me.

Explaining the basic needs of the human being is extremely simple… is it?
Well, let's star with the most basic… the human need to sleep and eat. Now let's start complicating it a little bit more, we need to get a bath every once in a while… we need a house to live, we need cloths to wear. Seams easy so far but let's take it up a notch.
People need to interact, need to belong to a social being so they feel completed (well it seams it's starting to complicate…doesn't it?), they need to be part of a family and to make a family… we're entering the needs… the “not physiologic” needs… we need to love, to be loved, we need to smile, to cry, to laugh… basic feelings... let's complicate it... we need to feel frustrated, we crave success, we envy, we desire…
And now… the worst part… we can find people that are the exception… and still feel good with them. There're people that don't want to succeed but are still happy, there're the ones that don't envy, the ones that don't desire, etc…
You could say… they say they don't… but in fact… they do… Well... I believe that there are a few that do not pretend… the human need… that extremely simple thing turned out to be one of the most complex things in the world… unless… unless we don't try to explain it… because if we don't make any effort to explain those needs, if each and every one of us just follow our needs… well they turnout to be again one of the most simple things in the world… and with that in mind, I need to read, today, and again The Little Prince… and that I shall do, without trying to explain why

Live 8
One of the best ideas famous people had in the last years.
To pressure the world leaders to help Africa by uniting hundreds of thousands by music is definitely a great idea.
I read an interview with Bob Geldof, Bono and Richard Curtis in which they explain the goal of making a series of free great concerts around the world. The greatness is that it will generate great revenue even without tickets (well… at least paid ones).
The other great thing is timing. We have 8 leaders (Bush, Blair, Berlusconi, Schroeder, Putin, Chirac, Martin and Koizumi), from these 8 leaders we have Bush, Blair, Schroeder and Chirac in their last terms (weather it’s because their unable/unwilling to run again or because they’ll lose the next election, doesn’t matter) and (with luck) will want to put their names in history… and Africa is the great opportunity they have, the chance to put their names in a history of Africa as the ones that gave bases to end poverty, hunger and war in the continent.
Are the lords of the world willing to make this true? Well that is another question. They have forgiven the debt of the poorest countries and we need to understand that they (especially Bush) have already done more than all others before them, but Africa needs more. They need to be able to compete with the rest of the world… although it may seems stupid, Africa is the part of the world that most needs globalization, free markets and free competition, and while EU and US continue with their protectionist politics there is no real help… just show off. And there is where the concerts and all the media frenzy enters, it’s where we all enter. If even after all that has been done we stand up and say: We want more, we understand that Africa needs more, then they will have to make the effort necessary to make Africa an example.
I’m really hoping that will happen.

I’ve heard about this really cool idea of time bank where you would deposit time (by doing something that you knew how to do and that another person needed) and then you would be able to withdraw some of the time you had previously deposit (that is someone else doing something you needed to be done and can’t do). If the idea works there would be lot’s of things we could get without paying cash and we could do something that we are good at to help others. It’s an interesting idea, as everybody is good at doing something and probably needs something done that doesn’t know how to do.
But the really good issue it raises is that all the work, all the jobs, all the tasks are worth the same. One hour of walking an old lady’s dog worth’s the same thing as one hour of babysitting your child, or painting your house or washing your car. This could be the first step of society to recognize that a street cleaner is worth the same as a surgeon… they both are indispensable to society, but today the distance between their salaries is so big that it should make us (that are part of these society) ashamed.
I’m not defending the same salary to everybody… I really don’t believe that, all I’m saying is that the salaries shouldn’t be to low (in Portugal a street cleaner makes less then €400 month) nor to high (a plastic surgeon in private clinics can make easy €10000 month). Only when these huge differences begin to disappear can we say that we all are worth the same in a society that needs us all to work properly.

It almost seems impossible. I spent my time writing about the American elections, writing about elections that will only influence me on an indirect level and when the Portuguese took place I didn’t bother to write anything.
Well I’m writing now. The government is only fully functional for a few days, and the first measures are begging to appear.
Well they should have no major problems in the next four year. The party that won, Partido Socialista (PS), a party that belongs to The Socialist International, won with absolute majority, a thing that they never did before, the EU approved a new approach to the stability pact, one that is less strict, the president of the EU commission is Portuguese. But there is more, the European economy is starting to show signs of improvement, and the same thing is happening with the Portuguese one.
The government is made by new people, some of them didn’t have anything to do with politics before entering the government. And the ones that wore pointed has probable ministers before the composition of the government was announce didn’t enter the government, as the new prime-minister was able to understand that the Portuguese people didn’t want the same old people running their country.
But they’ll have a very hard job, Portugal is far behind the old countries of the EU and needs to catch up with countries like Greece, Spain or Ireland. There is virtually no time to waste, they need to take some harsh measures in a very short period of time.
I’m hoping that they get them right, we’ll be here to see.

New Year, new life… is it?

Probably not. There are always a few New Year resolutions that we never follow, most of them are the same from last year, and the other, and the other… We don't need a change of year to change our lives, we don't need a new year to get ride of bad habits and start following the good ones. We definitely don't need a special day to shout: It's today that I'm changing, today that I'll watch less TV, do more exercise, quit on bad food… We just have to try that all the days in the year, so that next new year's resolution is: continue my life the way I've been living it.

And if you've done all this the last year and still have New Year resolutions… well there's just one thing I can say to you: Welcome to the real world, where nobody has a perfect life and everybody has unachieved dreams.

I like having unachieved dreams, it's what keeps me going on, it's what makes me want to wake up the next day, to battle to make true one of them… and when that one is achieved the next step is to elect a new dream to chase… I really hope that I'll always have al least one unachieved dream… cause without that I can't imagine how I would be happy.