It is an invaluable resource in times when the excess of information or misinformation cancels any opinion one may have.
It happens to me daily, no matter the topic, there will always be an app, guru, life coach or expert who knows more than anyone else.
However, in order not to opt for silence, which they say grants, my philosophical “I think…” came to the rescue.
I read it a while ago in Fernando Savater’s book “Questions for Life”, I went back to the book, knowing that I had surely highlighted it. In my search I came across Heidegger: “Why does something exist and not rather nothing?” (it reminded me of my three-year-old nephew Diego)
I found it, the rationalist premise is this:
“If I say I see a tree in front of me, I may be dreaming or being deceived by a mocking alien; but if I affirm, I think I see a tree in front of me, there is no God who can deceive me or dream that is worth it”.
End of discussion.
I decided to use my infallible resource on fundamentally sensitive issues such as politics, religion, nutrition, and even on the most trivial, such as the immortality of the crab.
In politics, I tend to be very visceral, I admit it, and when they ask me why I don’t like this or that leader, my argument is that, if I perceive anger in the speech, I reject it, whatever its political views.
“I think” that anger cancels out wisdom.
Anyway, I decided to try out my tactic at a family gathering. I don’t remember the subject, probably something not very relevant.
I didn’t finish articulating my “I think that…” when everyone was already citing studies from the University of Pensacola and apps from the new enlightened ones.
“I think” I’d better keep quiet, but just in case I’ll have at hand a verse by the poet Antonio Machado (1875-1939) more relevant than ever:
“Your truth, no: The Truth.
And come and get it.
Keep yours”.
Leonor Henríquez (Caracas, Venezuela) Civil Engineer by training (UCAB 1985), writer and apprentice poet by vocation. From her time in engineering emerged her Office Stories (1997), another way of seeing the corporate world. Her latest publications include reflections on grief, Hopecrumbs (2020) (www.hopecrumbs.com) and “The Adventures of Chispita” (2021) (www.chispita.ca) an allegory of life inside Mom’s belly.
Today she shares her “impulsive meditations” from Calgary, Canada, where she lives.
leonorcanada@gmail.com