Principles of Change

Through a blogpost by "Civilised Money" I stumbled across this guy, Carne Ross. Some years ago he was a British diplomat who stood up to Blair and Bush when they proposed war in Iraq on the basis of misleading information, today he sides with the Occupy movement, works on creating an alternative banking system and confesses that he hates hierarchy. Thus, he wrote a book on a leaderless revolution. According to him there are nine principles that make real political change possible.

He explains his principles in this very nice in-depth interview by one of my journalistic heroes, Bill Moyers. I really enjoyed listening to those two, who really have seen the inside of important and powerful political institutions until becoming somewhat disillusioned and eventually both turning to other political means in their respective - and quite impressive - ways. It's people like that that give me motivation and inspiration for action, so I would like to share their conversation with you:

So here are the nine principles of Carne Ross's leaderless revolution:

1. Excavate your convictions - What are the things you really really care about? this knowledge will give you the motivation to act.

2. Who's got the money and who's got the gun? - Take a step back and analyze the situation thoroughly. What mechanisms are at work here? Where does the action need to take place?

3. Act as if the means are the end - Inspired by Gandhi, Ross says that the form of politics you choose is the end. So you can only reach a goal, if you embody the principles of that goal.

4. Ask, don't assume - The Golden Rule is only a proxy that assumes that other people are similar to us. We should just go and find out, what people actually think.

5. Address those suffering the most - Happiness is not empirically measurable, suffering however is. And therefore it's both easier and more ethical to take care of the sufferers first. The poor, the hungry, the sick.

6. Consult and negotiate - Measures taken without including people in the process won't work as intended or they won't work at all. Don't take people for granted and consult with everybody in a participatory democracy.

7. Big picture, little deeds - Individuals are agents of change, because by doing the little deeds they do every day they create the world we live in. The same way, with a good look at the big goals we can better choose our small daily steps towards them.

8. Use non-violence - Non-violence doesn't mean pacifism, nor does it mean doing nothing. Non-violent action is a proven way to build positive and lasting social change.

9. Kill the king - (a chess metaphor) Voting won't solve problems, action will. There is no silver bullet, don't think there is a simple solution. Your actions matter, not your opinions.

***
Have a great weekend! And be good :)

Chuck Close writes to his younger self

As you will have noticed reading my blog I am a fan of inspirational people. Artists have always given me special outlooks and insights, because their work consists of introspection and measuring their own reaction to things they like or don't like to a higher degree than less aware people.
I aspire to that level of awareness where I can recognize what I like and what I am good at more easily. To define this clearly for myself is a task that I would give my younger self. So I am happy to have found these words by Chuck Close, an American portrait painter and photographer, who writes to his younger self and all of us what hindsight has taught him.

Source: Video on CBS News / Picture by John Agoncillo, check out his beautiful blog

This is a note to myself at age 14: 

I WAS in the eighth grade and was told not to even think about going to college. I couldn't add or subtract, never could memorize the multiplication tables, was advised against taking algebra, geometry, physics or chemistry and therefore would not get into any regular college. Since I was good with my hands, I was advised to aim for trade school, perhaps "body and fender" work. 

NEVER let anyone define what you are capable of by using parameters that don't apply to you. 

I APPLIED to a junior college in my hometown with "open enrollment", got in and embarked on a career in the visual arts.

VIRTUALLY EVERYTHING I've done is influenced by my learning disabilities. I think I was driven to paint portraits to commit images of friends and family to memory. I have face blindness, and once a face is flattened out, I can remember it much better. 

INSPIRATION IS for amateurs -- the rest of us just show up and get to work. Every great idea I've ever had grew out of work itself. 

SIGN ON to a process and see where it takes you. You don't have to reinvent the wheel every day. Today you will do what you did yesterday and tomorrow you will do what you did today. Eventually you will get somewhere. 

NO ONE gets anywhere without help. Mentors, including your parents and an occasional teacher, can make you feel "special" even when you are failing in other areas. Everyone needs to feel special. 

MY FATHER died when I was 11. That was the tragedy of my life, a horrible thing to happen when you are so young. Oddly enough there was a gift in this tragedy. I learned very early in life that the absolute worst thing can happen and you will get past it and you will be happy again. Losing my father at a tender age was extremely important in being able to accept what happened to me later when I became a quadriplegic. 

IF YOU are overwhelmed by the size of a problem -- break it down into many bite-sized pieces. 

QUADRIPLEGICS DON'T envy the able-bodied - we envy paraplegics. We think they've got an easier row to hoe. THERE IS always someone worse off than you. 

I AM confident that no artist has more pleasure day in and day out from what he or she does than I do.

Travelling together

In the past I have tried out a lot of different travel styles (except for all inclusive vacations, not really my thing) and travelled with many people. I travelled alone in my car, took planes, buses, trains and ferries. I have slept in hotels, hostels, motels, on people's couches, in my car, went camping and even spent nights at bus stations. I went on some trips with people I had only met a short while before and took journeys with some of my closest friends and my family. You should think that by now I should have decided which is the best way to travel for me :)

But it's not like that. With every new destination and every new person things are different. I change while travelling and learn something about myself. Travelling with only one other person is maybe the most enlightening experience among the possible constellations, more enlightening to me than it was travelling alone and certainly quite different from travelling with two or more people.

Being on the road can be stressful. There is a co-dependent relationship between two people who have decided to stick together for the time being. None of you can easily do "their own thing", take all their time, be always comfortable. So you need to do a lot of planning, calculate for down-time and food and accomodation to everybody's liking. I have heard stories of many a travelling group that has broken up over some sort of fight or other. If you wanna test a relationship, go on a long trip with your partner. By the end, you will know what the two of you can withstand and you will not only know your partner better, but also yourself. And you will be better for it.

On a related note I send you greetings from Portimão (Algarve) in Southern Portugal. I might tell the many adventures I have lived through with my travel companion on another day. Life is good and time is passing quickly :) For your benefit I have added a picture of probably the most perfect travelling couple I have met so far, two charming Chinese people I saw at the Mosteiro dos Gerónimos in Belém (Lisbon).

Open choices

You are free, but you have to choose something. My mother used to say: "an open oven bakes no bread" -- Paulo Coelho

Sometimes I feel like I don't have a choice. There is no choosing without alternatives. Well, alternative choices are all around us. Life itself is a series of choices: subconscious choices, immediate choices, well-thought-through choices, forced choices, emotional choices, hurried choices, bad choices, good choices. Living is choosing. And one recipe to give ourselves room to make good choices is openness. Openness about the direction a choice might take us in.

I am a social scientist, an intellectual, a people person, a traveler, but I might as well describe myself as a manager, an entrepreneur, an analytic brain, and a good networker. It's about the self-definition, not about the contents or skills of my person. By realizing this, a lot more choices open up to me. I don't have to follow a pre-drawn path that is determined by what I have done in the past. The Self that made those decisions does not exist, because every time a decision was made there was a random collection of (mostly unconscious) decisions about what experiences to pick from my past and what behaviors to nominate as "characteristic" of myself (my self!).
WWID - What Would I Do? in this situation is the question that many people ask themselves to feel consistent in their self-image. But a consistent self-image is a trap. It locks your choices into a cage that becomes harder and harder to break. To minimize the pain and anguish at our limitation, we proceed to rationalize the cage as the real us, our personality, and if we are lucky we can say of ourselves (our selves!) that we are what we have always wanted to be.

But there is so much more out there. Throwing the past overboard can be healthy. It's never too late to start looking again for what you wanna do with your life. Maybe you would love to start a new career, there are usually lots of new places that you would like to see before you die, or you could be looking for a hobby by crowd-sourcing the search.

What helps me are my advisors, the people around me that challenge my arguments for doing the things I do, but never stop me from doing something they did not really expect. Friends and family know me well enough to trust my decisions, once I have made them and still help me while I collect arguments for or against a certain idea. Change is always scary, but with people like this, it is half as bad!

Search for inspiration

This is Bono giving a commencement speech at the University of Pennsylvania. It is customary at universities in the United States to have a notable speaker to celebrate another year of graduates leaving the institution with a degree. I wish this was also a tradition at universities in Germany because it gives graduates like me something they are very much in need of: inspiration.

Now you might say "come on, you just got a degree, you are young and successful, so if you can't come up with brilliant ideas for your life, no one can", but it is not as simple as that.
Yes, it is true, people with masters degrees are certainly less likely to end up unemployed (statistics tell me this, while the clichee still goes about students of humanities driving cabs and selling hot dogs). I acknowledge that I am privileged. I am well-educated, safely funded, and able-bodied.

Nothing can stop people like me. Except for ourselves.

Inspiration is the spark that can make this generation live up to its potential, but it does not grow in an environment of "no, you can't" or of "yes, but". When there is high unemployment we are told to go for security and are discouraged from our dreams because really, what does my generation know about making a career. When the job market is good, we are encouraged to go for the jobs that pay best. Security and money seem like the most obvious categories by which to judge the quality of a job. And it feels limiting. When I turn on the news I listen to politicians naming job creation as their highest priority, as if work was a value in itself. It is not. A healthy, happy, and just global society however is! The shortsighted requirements of creating jobs for our economy to sustain the unsustainable goal of infinite growth are sending a signal that does not lead to the best outcomes.

Everybody has something that inspires them! For me it is the interaction with people, the collaboration to do something good. I also draw energy from things that upset me, from phone companies' bad service, to educational inequality, preventable environmental disasters, global poverty and disease, and the incredibly slow pace of change. If I can harness my passionate instinct to help out with the emergency situation of poverty, environmental change, migration, lack of education in most parts of the world, I am sure to be more productive and more fulfilled in the long run.

The inspiration to help must be steeled against frustration, shielded from cynicism and, very often, from pragmatism. Bono speaks about idealism under attack, and he is right. For years I have learned about the inequalities that our society produces, about the structures that keep the poor in poverty and the uneducated dumb. I know that the time to act has come.

I know that my role in this world is somewhere out there, helping to organize a future that is more just that our past, setting up the structures that will lead to less violence and more education. I have a dream that my children will live in a world that is not shackled by the responsibility for a neglected Global South. In my dream university graduates will not have the odd feeling of choosing between their ideals and a sensible career. This is my mission statement. Feel free to make your own!

Preparation

ARIES (March 21-April 19): My friend Alana suffered from a mysterious ailment for months. Symptoms included vertigo, stomach pains, and numbness in her legs. After being treated unsuccessfully by six health care practitioners, both mainstream and alternative, she went to see Dr. Ling, a Chinese herbalist recommended by a friend. Ling was a dour woman who made no eye contact. Her office was dingy, cramped, and windowless. Alana felt a bit depressed by the visit. Yet when she took Dr. Ling's herbs, she felt better. In three weeks she was cured. The moral of the story, Aries: The restorative agent you need may not come in the most inviting form.

Three weeks from now, my final exams begin. I have been stringing along a lot of necessary preparations, studying on and off for some time and without great impulse. I know that even without the best preparation I won't fail completely, but I won't be satisfied with the results. Everybody who talks to me these days, please give me a guilty conscience for not studying hard enough. I will need it to make this work! Strange how my motivation works! Obviously what I need is not coming in a very inviting form, but I know I will feel better come December...

How to be alone

It's been a while since I last posted something on here. There will be an explanation for that in the next post, so this one is reserved for another topic, one very dear to me.
Many people I have met feel the urge to always be among people. As a social person I get this feeling, too. The emptiness inside, the notion of drifting, fear of being abandoned, if one does not live up to the expectations of others to get back to them in emails or phone calls. Yes, I understand, but yet I have trained myself to be alone some times. If you have planned an evening by the lake and all the friends you've invited now have other plans, go anyway. I am happier that way.
So when I found this very original piece of art by Tanya Davis I was moved by the eloquence with which she expresses this way of life. Enjoy in silence and (preferably) alone!

100th post

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Photons work hard to get from the heart of the sun to the surface. They can take up to 160,000 years to complete the 400,000+-mile journey. And yet once Earth-bound photons get topside, they travel the 93-million-mile distance to our planet in just over eight minutes. I foresee a metaphorically similar situation unfolding in your life in the coming weeks. A development that has been a long time in the making will accelerate tremendously in its last phase of ripening.

Today my new (thesis themed) lifestyle choices come into effect. I have been travelling and catching my breath before this task ahead and I feel ready to get some structure into my daily life. Today is a day full of energy, people want the best for me and wish me success with what I am doing and where I am going on my journey. I am grateful and will try to remind myself of that every once in a while.

Let me return you some of that positive energy and wish you all the best for my 25th birthday :)

Validation

No need to say anymore here. Just know that I have the happiest of smiles for all you amazing and unique people out there :D
And thanks to the wonderful Kurt Kuenne who made this short film!

Weird or just different?

Obviously I haven't been very active, blog-wise, in the last few weeks, so I am going to post twice today to make up for it :)

I just saw this great video. It's funny and at the same time makes a very important point which I think is relevant to all aspects of life.

So try out the lesson learned from the clip "The opposite may also be true" and then assess your political, ideological, religious or opinions about the right lifestyle.

If you are like me (and most other people in my experience) you probably think that you are quite right in what you assume about the world. In fact most of your knowledge is never ever questioned. As soon as you have made yourself an opinion, you regard that as the viewpoint from which all other opinions are to be judged.
But what if you're wrong? What if you dismiss a correct or equally (!) correct notion, just because you limited your mind - unconsciously or consciously - to what you hold to be possible.

Personally I take from this a reminder not to be judgemental and act from a position of not wanting to destroy others' opinions. Instead I try questioning all of them, first of all my own. The openness that comes with this approach hopefully makes me a lot less prone to conflict. (And what if the opposite of that is also true?)

Not exactly myself

ARIES (March 21-April 19): You may be as flooded with briny emotion as a Pisces on a meandering binge. You might be as embedded in a labyrinth of your own creation as the Geminis who verge on being too clever for their own good. You may be as cagey a listener as a Scorpio who's searching for a hidden vulnerability in an ally. In other words, Aries, you're not exactly yourself. But it's one of those rare times when that's a good thing. Halloween costume suggestion: the opposite of what you think you
are.

****

What I think I am, you ask? Well, there is a lot to that question and I could think of long and detailed answers. Would any of it have to do with reality? I couldn't say, probably not.

Seite 124 - Bedienungsanleitung meines Gehirns

Dieser Text stammt aus einem Buch des Neurobiologen Gerald Hüther mit dem wundervollen Titel "Bedienungsanleitung für ein menschliches Gehirn":

"...Kinder können einen anderen Menschen so offen, so vorbehaltlos und so um seiner selbst willen lieben. Sie übernehmen deshalb auch die Hoffnungen und die Sprache der Menschen, die sie lieben, am leichtesten. Und manchmal gelingt es auch noch Erwachsenen, einander so vorbehalt- und selbstlos zu begegnen, als wären sie Kinder.
Liebe erzeugt ein Gefühl von Verbundenheit, das über denjenigen hinausreicht, den man liebt. Es ist ein Gefühl, das sich immer weiter ausbreitet, bis es schließlich alles umfasst, was einen selbst und vor allem diejenigen Menschen, die man liebt, in die Welt gebracht hat und in dieser Welt hält.
Wer so vorbehaltlos liebt, fühlt sich mit allem verbunden und dem ist alles wichtig, was ihn umgibt. Er liebt das Leben und freut sich, an der Vielfalt und Buntheit dieser Welt. Er genießt die Schönheit einer Wiese im Morgentau ebenso wie ein Gedicht, in dem sie beschrieben oder ein Lied, in dem sie besungen wird.
Er empfindet eine tiefe Ehrfurcht vor allem, was lebt und Leben hervorbringt, und er ist betroffen, wenn es zugrunde geht.
Er ist neugierig auf das, was es in dieser Welt zu entdecken gibt, aber käme nie auf die Idee, sie aus reiner Wissbegierde zu zerlegen. Er ist dankbar für das, was ihm von der Natur geschenkt wird. Er kann es annehmen, aber er will es nicht besitzen.
Das einzige, was er braucht, sind andere Menschen, mit denen er seine Wahrnehmungen, seine Empfindungen, seine Erfahrungen und sein Wissen teilen kann. Wer sein Gehirn auf diese umfassende Weise nutzen will, muss also lieben lernen."

:)

Be a lighthouse!

via A man called old fashion

Represent love

"Aren't we privileged to live in a time when everything is at stake, and when our efforts make a difference in the eternal contest between the forces of light and shadow, between togetherness and division, between justice and exploitation? Oh, be joyful that you are a warrior in this great time!

"Will we rise to this battle? If so, we cannot lose, for rising up to it is our victory . . . If we represent love in the world, you see, we have already won."

- Doris "Granny D" Haddock from her 93rd birthday speech

Shukran

Back from my journey I feel full and happy. I have truly lived these days, enjoying every moment. There was a lot of time to just stare and marvel at the world. Maybe I have even gotten a little wiser by learning more about myself.

I have been friendly to people, even those who apparently wanted just more money. I guess in some situations I was deliberately dumb because I am so trusting toward everyone. But then I think that I got back home safe and the universe has watched out for me. Most people recognize my weakness in my trusty (some say naive) nature, yet I still have not met the person that really wanted me bad. Will I ever?

There really is a difference between the traveller and the tourist. The people in the desert even have a word for the tour tourists, who they call Tamalou (pronounced French, freely translated as: "where does it ache you?").

Our group has not been aching. In fact we took everything that was offered without bothering if the lemonade glass was 'european style clinically clean' or whether the fruits were a little dusty. We slept on thin mattresses and tried to learn arabic wherever we could. We have been called uncomplicated people because it was easy to make us happy. And we were happy, which I suppose is the best gift you can bring if you are a visitor.
The last thing that makes the tourist a traveller is that he is asked to come back anytime to see more. And that is a real treasure.

This alchemist once again has returned to where he started!

How to live

Today I got an email with this list of ten things that can really make your life happier. I just wish everyone knew that. Don't be grouchy, keep learning, just be grateful for life. Amen to that!

******

1. Throw out nonessential numbers.
This includes age, weight and height.
Let the doctors worry about them.
That is why you pay them.

2. Keep only cheerful friends.
The grouches pull you down.
(Keep this In mind if you are one of those grouches.)

3. Keep learning:
Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever.
Never let the brain get idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop."
And the devil's name is Alzheimer's!

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud.
Laugh until you gasp for breath.
And if you have a friend who makes you laugh,
spend lots and lots of time with HIM / HER.

6. The tears happen:
Endure, grieve, and move on.
The only person who is with us our entire life, is yourself.
LIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love:
Whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever.
Your home is your refuge. How about your relationship with God?

8. Cherish your health:
If it is good, preserve it.
If it is unstable, improve it.
If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips.
Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county,
to a foreign country, but *NOT* to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love
that you love them, at every opportunity.

Life is divine

"'Always be the happiest man on earth, wherever you are and whatever you do.' If you look at it that way, being in prison is actually a rather interesting experience."

I took this quote from a very inspiring article I found after Larry Brilliant mentioned the guy responsible for the quote in a panel discussion.

The person I would like to point your attention to is Robert Muller, former UN Assistant Secretary General and former Chancellor of the University for Peace in Costa Rica (a demilitarized country).
Not only is he my namesake, but he could well be my next big role model for how to see the world and how to act in it. Among his achievements are that China joined the United Nations and the Pope adressed the UN Assembly for the first time. His optimism, as I see it, is unparalleled, and it is so refreshing when you compare his positive approach to today's challenges with the one we are used to. When others say: "We need to develop global consciousness" he says: "We will develop global consciousness".
Please take a moment to read what this man has to say and I will cut my descriptions short :)

"To be unhappy, to be ungrateful, not to feel wonder and appreciation for the incredible gift of life is a most foolish and short-sighted attitude. The toughest prison of all is that which man imposes upon himself."

For more go here

A movie review

A blogger friend recently posted some movies that he liked in 2008. This reminded me of a movie that has touched a nerve with me and I would like to describe it to you, hopefully without spoiling it. I am talking about Vicky Cristina Barcelona, another masterpiece by Woody Allen.


The story is about two American girlfriends who are spending a summer in Barcelona. Vicky (Rebecca Hall) is about to get married, Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) just broke up with yet another boyfriend. "The two best friends had been close since college and shared the same tastes and opinions on most matters yet when it came to the subject of love, it would be hard to find two more dissimilar viewpoints."
They meet a painter, Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), and later on his ex-wife María Elena (Penélope Cruz). "He had this hot divorce and she tried to kill him." Romance ensues and with it comedy and tragedy.

This study of happiness and love comes round full circle and on the way touches on some of the questions that probably move everybody in the course of their life. Difficult decisions to be made, the choice between passion and reason, the occasional backlapse after you've already decided, not knowing what you want and knowing what you don't want.

Here are some of many memorable quotes from the movie:

"Maria Elena used to say that only unfulfilled love can be romantic."

"I'm sure any dissatisfaction I have is my own problem."

"The dream is exciting."

"...a growing restlessness that she dreaded, but recognized only too well. Suddenly thoughts started taking precedence over feelings. Toughts and questions about life and love."

"I'm too scared."

The movie does not offer solutions, but after watching it I somehow realized that everybody's happiness is their own responsibility and it begins with being happy with what is and stop worrying about what might be. I shall leave it at that and hope all of you have a wonderful week and maybe go see the movie :)

:-)

Have you heard of the book "How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie? Of course it is one of the big classics and a huge bestseller since its publication in 1936. This is one of the books that in spite of having a title that sounds like manipulation and another set of business tricks, has had a profound impact on me. It basically is a simple guide on how to treat people in everyday life, be it professional or personal and I found a lot of the advice really helpful and universally applicable. It has nothing to do with unproper behaviour, although manipulation probably comes in at some point, though not in the way one would think.

Among ideas like "Remember people's names (because for everyone their own name is the most important word in the world)" and such memorable quotes as "Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do", there is one piece of advice that has been the most important for me:

Smile!

It is the number one thing you can change in yourself that makes your life better by the minute. Smile when you buy a train ticket, smile when you get stopped by the police, smile when you thank someone for helping you out, smile when you get criticized, smile when no one understands you, at least they can like you then :) Smile on the phone, too! We can hear when someone is smiling!

Today smiling is easy for me, but I have had days when it was really hard. For those days there is a special trick: Stand in front of a mirror and try to smile. If it does not work at once, take your hands and help your mouth. If that does not help just laugh about how unwilling you obviously are to feel better ;)

Take care, and have a wonderful day!

Un perro que comprendía la filosofía

Esto es un relato en español que acabo de escribir. Fue la inspiración de una amiga que me hizo escribirlo, porque el título lo inventó ella. Espero que os guste!

*****************

Sócrates era un cocker. Lo sabía y siempre había sido algo orgulloso porque los cockeres tienen una tradición larga. Miembros de su familia habían vivido en palacios y jardines reales. Se habían hecho famosos como perros de caza y favoritos de reyes y damas de la nobleza. Uno de sus antepasados, un llamado Wolfram von Potsdam und Niedertauern era el compañero de un hombre aparentemente famoso, un político que se conocía como Bismarck. Wolfram era confiado de este hombre quien lo llamaba amistosamente "mein treuer Wolf" (mi fiel Wolf).

Sócrates casi no había conocido a su familia, sólo a un hermano y a su madre, que estaban con él durante unas cortas semanas después de su nacimiento. Sin embargo su madre, Cecilia, le había impregnado con un gran orgullo y un amor de la filosofía. Era su propia filosofía que se podía resumir en una frase que le repitió muchas veces a su hijo: "No te olvides de tu herencia, Sócrates. Lo más importante es que estés con alguien quien te reconozca como lo que eres, un noble perro de inteligencia."

Desde aquellos días, en su opinión los más importantes de su vida, Sócrates se había esforzado de lograr la grandeza que su raza le exigía. Él quería ser el amado amigo de algún hombre grande o una mujer de la alta sociedad. Pero algo le pasó que iba a cambiar su perspectiva para siempre.

Estaba una noche con su dueña María, una chica joven de buena familia, estudiante en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Los dos salían para quedar con unos antiguos amigos del colegio, que su dueña María no había visto en muchos años. Era la primera vez que Sócrates iba al piso de gente que aún desconocía. Como muchas veces antes, Sócrates esperaba su oportunidad de impresionar a la gente con sus maneras educadas y su higiene impecable. Ni siquiera iba a bostezar porque entonces no podría impedir que la gente viera su lengua o, peor aun, se molestaría por el olor de su aliento.

Pero al llegar al piso de los amigos nada fue como anticipado. Ya en la puerta, sentía que algo iba mal. Veía una cara tímida, rodeada por mucho pelo largo y negro, retirándose un momento para aparecer otra vez con una sonrisa esforzada, hablando con María. Sócrates entendía que estaban hablando de él. Su dueña estaba hablando en voz un poco más alta, casi cabreada. La otra chica, ojeándolo desconfiadamente, mientras él la miraba con sus ojos oscuros y tranquilos, parecía ponerse más nerviosa con cada segundo que pasaba.
Al final, lo imposible sucedió: Su dueña le ató a él, Sócrates, a una planta grande que estaba al lado de la puerta del piso, y...lo dejó. Entró en el piso con la chica del pelo negro y sólo miraba atrás un breve momento antes de desaparecer dentro.

Sócrates, como era un perro bien educado no siguía su instinto de ladrar, para llamarla fuera, pero se echó a pensar tristemente.
¿Cómo puede haber pasado eso? se preguntó. Por qué actua la gente así. No me conoce, ¿por qué se comporta como si fuera algún chucho? ¿Acaso no soy un noble perro? ¿Acaso no tengo cultura y educación? ¿Por qué me tratan como un extranjero en quien no se puede confiar?

Durante dos horas estaba ahí, atado, humillado, delante de una puerta que significaba para él toda la injusticia del mundo. Una vez salió María para traerle un poco de agua y un hueso de pavo un poco salado. Pero él no podía ni mirarla por su traición. Seguía pensando y poco a poco iba comprendiendo.

Lo que le había dicho su madre era verdad, nunca iba a dudarlo, pero lo que antes pensaba de ello ya no valía. No todos los humanos podían reconocer en él la noble persona de buena familia que era. Existía gente ignorante, gente tímida y de mente cerrada que no estaba dispuesta o suficientemente valiente como para abrirse y entender. Sócrates se calmó un poco. No era su culpa, ni era culpa de la gente. Lo único que podía hacer era ser él mismo, sin fallos, orgulloso de su herencia y su educación. Con el tiempo, lo sabía, la gente tendría que enterarse.

Sócrates se fue de la puerta de este piso con su dueña. Alejándose de la chica del pelo negro miró atrás e intentó sonreír. Antes de cerrar la puerta una sonrisa tímida le respondió.

*******************