BEING

Being is a beautiful word that supports dozens of definitions, whose versatility as a verb is, perhaps, one of the strongest in the dictionary: being means exist, be, use, happen, assert, possess, cost, keep, maintain friendship, correspond, belong, state, etc. With the verb to be we conjugate life, definitely.

And as a noun, Being is essentially (and forgive the redundancy) essence, nature and humanity. Self is the key word, from which we combine existence and identity with art and the opportunity to live. To this concept, Being, we devote the first part of our book (written along with Pascual Olmos), “That Life You Deserve”, whose brief introduction I would like to share with you here:

PART I

To be or not to be human? That is the question.

    A man sows a thought and reaps an action.

    Sows an action and reaps a habit.

    Sows a habit and reaps a character.

    Sows a character and reaps a destiny.

    PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA

 

How many times have we heard “it is impossible to be completely happy because something goes wrong anyhow”? Or that other phrase that sounds almost out of date by now “I do not feel fulfilled”? Both deep questions revolve around a deeper, more abstract and more difficult concept to integrate into our lives: being, that philosophical term with which we are not used to live up, which does not appear in our education or our emotional common reference scale, and that can stay away from our everyday thinking throughout our lives if we do not think about it explicitly.

In this first part of the book we focus attention on being ourselves, but not in an abstract philosophical, metaphysical or religious sense, but in a more prosaic, closer and more effective one, we make a stand and think about what we might call in a simple wordplay our “human being”, that human essence that manifests in our every decision, every action, or rather in our commitment to the consequences of every decision and every action. That “being” in the world that defines our lives and that usually we pay very little attention to. It seems that we only stop to think about it when crisis, misfortune or tragedy make their appearance. Why not take this into account and chart daily our world and desired future?

Then we will see that what makes us human are our needs, motivations of our actions, and that they are the engine of all, the true power that moves the world. A truly renewable energy, clean, non-polluting, but that has also consequences and whose sign depends directly on the amount of the attitudes and values of each and every one of the inhabitants of this planet. Then we will reflect positively on transforming that energy, how to place it back in favour of the individual and their own happiness, but also in favour of a management model to help us generate a balanced social environment, one we can be proud of, and a sustainable economy which considers the environmental footprint of products and services and ensures the quality of the biosphere protecting the escalation of predation, waste and abuse that we are doing to the planet.

Because there is an obvious premise that we have avoided: economy creates psychology. Or, let’s put it another way, the quality of the soul creates the material quality. Do we want a beautiful world? Let’s create beautiful people. Do we want a fair and healthy economy? Let’s educate then fair and healthy humans. Impossible? No. The word impossible is usually the lazy’s excuse. Today, the question is no longer: what world will we leave our children?, but also: what children are we leaving in this world? And to answer the second question properly, we need to reflect deeply on the roots of our being, of our essence as human beings, our motivations and what gives meaning to our lives and our hours.

I wish you a happy Being.

Hugs and kisses,

Álex

[** Royalties from “That Life You Deserve” will target social projects in Ethiopia, developed by the Foundation Christian-Marc Olmos Vente:

The activities of the Foundation began in 2008, in memory of Christian-Marc, who died in car accident on April 3, 2007. Four development projects have been carried out to date in Ethiopia.

• Energy project in the town of Girmana. Electricity is led through kilometers of poles and wiring, and by installing the transformer in the populated area Girmana Zway.
• Energy project in the town of Boromo. As in Girmana.
• Computer room in Zway. It allowed the renovation of 50 top technology computers. This Computer room of the Salesian Sisters recently received the Excellence Award from the Ministry of Education of Ethiopia.
• Drilling a well in the orphanage Meki. A 100 meter water depth was achieved and supplies water to the orphanage and the people through pipes.

Recently, five more projects are taking shape and will be materialized soon:

• Sewerage and water supply in the town of Meki (in progress)
• Electric flour mill in the town of Boromo
• Large two classrooms in the school of Girmana
• Construction of a waiting room at the orphanage/ Meki Pediatric Hospital, in collaboration with the Paul Horstman Foundation (already completed)
• Project power lines in the town of Boromo-Walicho

Funding for these projects has been carried out exclusively with family Olmos Vente funds and through the necessary collaboration of the Salesian Sisters of Zway.]