Benjamin Teixeira de Aguiar by the Spirit Eugenia
Many people ask me how to distinguish clearly the moment of persisting from the moment of reflecting to change the route. When can you notice you are not on the right path and that certain set of negative factors indicate a blockage offered by the Divine Providence? And how to make the distinction between this situation from that in which the Divine Providence test us, to see if our purpose to follow the track of the own ideal is strong enough and then reward us with victory, after overcoming adversities?
Both situations are extremely common, and we face ourselves with both kinds, every time, often in complex symbiotic combinations. This demand from us a sharp intelligence, within the intricate tissues of circumstances, to distinguish what must be strengthen and what must be not by the focus of our conscience. In an affective relationship, for instance, we can find out that we must keep on with the moral commitment with the partner but not nurturing certain neurotic behavior of co-dependence, which must be treated and extracted from the psychological bonds between the spouses.
Children go to school very early, and leave at lunch hour. They have a break during the morning, when they also have the chance to have a snack, but only to continue their effort of learning, that takes all their morning. After lunch, barely after the digestion has started, they are back, taken by their parents to have other lessons, so that they can keep going with their efforts, and, later, when the night is falling, ballet, sports and English lessons… And they are just children… But we control, to a certain extent, the children. Parents, usually, treat their children like living dolls, for a better control, stipulating, obviously, what is best for their future… Forgotten, however, to make their own effort… It takes work… it is tiring, they are exhausted from the effort in their work… that is what they say. They have already studied too much in their lives.
Be careful in your analysis, my dear friend. How much time you think you have spent in making the effort to be better, to improve yourself, to become a more complete human being? Children and teenagers evolve quickly not only because they are in a phase of fast psycho-organic development, but also it is demanded too much from them and, as such, they grow a lot. Adults, however, besides the effort of working to survive and conquer fortune and power, do not work hard, usually, in their self-improvement, and often they pass entire decades, existence over existence, as the same person, with the same vicious patterns of thought, feelings and behavior; without broadening their own culture, learning a new language or unfolding a new skill.
You are not a finished being. As an unfinished creature, in a continuous process of construction and, specially, self-construction, you can and must lead, now, your process of self-poiese. Do not relax in this endeavor, because Life won`t relax for you, and It will charge you high taxes for your inertia, laziness and negligence. To be responsible for oneself is always making the effort to grow and turn the world a little bit better around you, even if only for two people. Only parasites rejoice in only existing and having fun. Have fun: doing good deeds, being useful, helping others, being fraternal, more mature, and studying to better serve humanity.
The advance of civilization to a post-industrial era has introduced this new perspective: of an eternal school. Not anymore as a metaphor, but as a dramatic law of survival. Today, those who don`t add, continuously, values to their curriculum, is in a process of collapsing. They become decadent professionals, strong candidates to obsolescence.
The concept of employability, replacing the employment one, shows a dynamic social universe, demonstrating that, as a natural process of evolution in societies, human organizations begin to reflect more truthfully the functional system of hierarchy in the Cosmos: everyone grow, and the “boss” is the most “grown-up”. We still do not live, on Earth, in a system of merit, but public tenders and the ferocity of the labor market select the most skilled, including values such as sociability and intuition, creativity and disposition to be dedicated to humanitarian causes, especially in the big urban centers, which demonstrates that we are walking fast in this direction.
If you have any doubt about the road to take, if you notice that one road allows you to rest a little bit more than the other, I suggest you, my dear friend, emphatically: take the harder road. Do not trust facilities: they corrupt, create illusions and make the individual lose the most precious opportunities of existence.
The experience of being in Flow, or reaching such a stage in existence where one does not feel the own effort it is not really living a facility, but, on the contrary, is a result of a long and painful process of expansion and enhancement of a skill, like the classic ballet dancer, who, on stage, seems to smile, peacefully, without making any effort to accomplish those pirouetting and somersaults. And, however, behind the glow of some minutes of glory, on stage, hide decades of daily work of more than ten hours of pain and sweat, hunger and discipline.
It is quite true that there are suicide attitudes, profoundly damaging to the family and to the spiritual side of the worker. It is not that we are talking about. Workaholics have to be treated, so that they can find more balance in their lives and do not escape the confrontation with his true self and his complex multifaceted needs.
Someone who is a workaholic drowns in one unique activity, undermining all other functions and commitments in his life, including the most sacred ones, like family and his connection with the Creator. I also make reference to the person who can give a little bit more of herself but chooses to rest a little longer, under the shadow of less effort. Do not believe in this philosophy of life. Remember that, nowadays, when we are talking about idleness, we can make a reference to the idea of “creative laziness”, as proposed by the sociologist of work, Domenico DeMasi, in which the individual finds pleasure and learning in his professional activity.
Therefore, it has nothing to do with unproductiveness, but, quite the opposite, aiming towards the trail of excellence, since, by doing what one likes, the individual does more and with more quality, without the need of so much rest and leisure, becoming this way: more competitive in the job market, since he won`t collapse so easily, driven by pleasure, in the unique effort of the overload of professional activities and responsibilities, which is indispensable for those who seek the top of organizations and excellence in the performance in a job, whatever it is.
I believe I have already given you a clue of how to evaluate your specific situation and, honestly, I will not give you an objective rule, such as a ready formula, a pre-established scheme, so that you can follow, as a child who needs to cover the dotted lines in order to practice her motor coordination to write. You, as a free, lucid, conscious being must establish, by yourself, your goals, your strategies to reach them, your values, your priorities; and you will be the one to set your routine, establishing disciplines, demanding results from yourself.
And this is the big challenge of modernity: the human being, now, is a builder of himself. He does not obey culturally introjected and social schemes; he must not fit in learnt pre-established models. On the contrary, he is lord of his fate and responsible, completely, for what he is, what he this, the way he acts, with whom he is and where he is going to.
Welcome to the era of uncertainty – translating: the era of freedom, creativity and full individual responsibility by our own existence, our fate and legacy to humanity.
(Message received on April 29th, 2004)