Que te vaya Bonito

What I believe Savater tries to point out in this chapter is the fact that even though the time passes and some features of our context change, the inherent essence of the human beings remains the same and this is with what Ethics deals. So the date shown by the calendar is not important when trying to reflect on what we want ourselves to be and to achieve in life as part of the humankind we all are. Of course, there are some differences or new issues to be discussed as far as Ethics is concerned, but the essential ingredients are always the same. As Savater wrote, “Vivir en rebaño es como vivir entre espejos…” we, human beings, in spite of all our differences, show the same basic characteristics that humans have shown throughout centuries.Throughout our lives we come across people we think are different from us and maybe, as a first reaction, we tend to reject them as we are all conditioned by stereotypes and so forth, but we need to overcome those prejudices and try to see beyond superficial differences so as to find the essence of the other which is, at the same time, our own human essence.

Don´t Be Afraid

I think one of the most important messages this book has given me is Don´t waste your life being afraid. Fear is the main obstacle we can come across with when trying to move ahead in life. Many times I find myself being afraid of thing I do not know, but I’ve learnt that I can not know how to do everything and to enjoy the opportunity to learn new things. In one occasion during a lecture on graphic design an important Brazilian designer told us she was never afraid of the things she did not know, on the contrary she said she usually took on jobs which required her to do things she did not know. She was happy to had come across those jobs as they made her learn a lot about the profession and about life itself. I think this was a good lesson for me, she taught me not to feel bad but to take the situation as a good challenge to learn from it.

Help

I thought it interesting the lines of this chapter in which politicians are compared to the rest of the people. I couldn’t agree more with the fact they have worse reputation than us, just because their acts are more public than ours. If we look at it closely, politicians are not very different from us. Last Sunday, my uncle told me about this chain help the TV show CQC carried out some time ago in which a rural school located in an inaccessible place in the South of Argentina was given a pick-up truck for the teachers to be able to carry materials, food, etc. Some time later, CQC received a phone call from a teacher of that school denounced the very same teacher who had called CQC the first time asking for help. Now, he was the “owner” of that vehicle and was using it for his own benefit, not for the school’s benefit. This is a sad example of what many people do and it is also a way to show that we don’t need to be politicians to be dishonest, amoral or corrupt. Apart from this, I truly believe there are many politicians who are not like this either. Like this story I think we have heard many. People like this teacher are the ones who make of the world a corrupted place and discourage us as human beings, but it is necessary to show the counterpart of this also, especially to our students, and to discuss this issue carefully and tactfully with them. There are much more people working for this world to be better so we shouldn’t let the bad actions of some make us give up on the good things we can do for our peers.