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Our obligation, according to Savater, is not to be "imbéciles" (I write it in Spanish since I believe that in this way the meaning is clearer)... What calls my attention is the true meaning of this word and where it comes from... I really love the connection between being "imbécil" and a walking stick... I really believe that not being able to decide by yourself, or not being able to realise what you really want and, as a consequence, not being able to go for what you want mean that you need a walking stick for your soul since you cannot go on without the help of someone else, without relying on someone else's decision, behaviour or will... I have to say that unfortunately there are times in my life when I need (or maybe I make myself believe that I need) a walking stick to go on... those moment in which I would like not to be able to decide... and it is in those moment in which I behave as an "imbécil"... So we need to find a cure for this... we need to find a solution for this... and the secret is in accepting our duty as human beings: taking decisions... we have to take our decisions, we cannot ask someone else to decide for us (well, at least that wouldn't be the best thing to do if we want to live a good human life)... Your decision, You decide... After taking the decision we have to be sure if what we are going to do has to do with what we really want; and then, finally, we will have to develop what Savater calls "good moral taste" in order to be able to reject anything bad (such as telling a lie) almost automatically... But, what happened if we don't follow this advice and we do something "stupid" (something done by someone who is "imbécil")? Well, we feel remorse... we feel guilty for not having done what we know we had to...And here it is when "Pepito Grillo" appears... when our conscience tells us that we have done something wrong, when our freedom makes us feel guilty simple because if we weren't free we wouldn't be able to feel remorse and guilty... that's why when we know we have done something wrong or shameful we tend to excuse ourselves by saying that we have done it because there wasn't any way out, because it hasn't been our decision... All that we have to do is to be honest with ourselves and with the others... and no matter how hard we may try to convince the others and ourselves about something that is not as we want it to be, our "Pepito Grillo" will let us know that even though we might lie to the others we won't ever be able to lie to ourselves...
We have already talked about what is it to give ourselves a good life... But, of course, there is even more to say about this, and it has to do with the decisions we make and their aim... When we take a decision regarding what we really want to do, are we thinking about the implications of that decision? Is it really going to give us the good life we want? The question is: can we say that everything we do because we really want is going to give us a good life? Savater's talks about something very interesting and concrete: treating people as if they were objects, and unfortunately we have to, or at least I have to admit that this is something that heppens quite often simply because we tend to concentrate so much in what we want that we tend to forget two important things: First of all, we usually forget to see if what we want is something good in itself (i.e. not only good for me but also good -or not bad- for someone else so that we can have a good human life) and secondly, we forget the most important thing about giving ourselves a good life: we are so commited to do anything to get what we want that we end up going against someone else (or against ourselves) or treating someone else as an object... In order not to treat people as objects we will have to take into account not only what they can give to us but also what they want, what they need and who they are... We don't have to forget that only human beings can give us those human "things" (such as love, friendship, advices and so on) that we need to have a good life... There is one condition that is a must if we want to live our lives as human beings... we have to be sure that we do not to want to live in anyway, we have to know that not everything is valid for giving us a good life...and that we will only be able to live a good human life if we let others (and help them to) live their lives "humanly"... "There are many ways in which we can live our lives, but some of those ways will not let us live"
As I've written in my previous post, we don't have to forget that orders, habits and whims are just one aspect of the complicated art of taking decisions...
In fact if we decide to make all our decisions giving too much importance to these influences, I would say that we are not going in the right direction, at least if we want to live a good life...
The question here is to being able to distinguish between what someone else wants me to do (orders, customs and so on) and what I actually want... and the only way of knowing what we actually want is to take some time to think about it within ourselves... The only one that can tell you what you really want to do is yourself...
However, we don't have to get confused with "what I actually want" and "the first thing that come into my mind" since we tend to find ourselves giving too much importance to something that does not really deserve it and we end up realising that what we really wanted was not what we have chosen...
So, going back to what Savater says about "giving yourself a Good Life" (Date La Buena Vida) I have to say that he points out something that I find really interesting; he says that the secret of giving yourself a Good Life is to give yourself a Good Human Life... What does it mean? Well I believe that a Good Human Life is one in which we are not alone and we can easily find us exchanging, interacting, sharing and enjoying what we are... Human Beings... And all this can be realised only if we are aware of what we really want and not only if it is good for us but also if it is good for others too, or at least if it does not go against another human being and against the Good Human Life that we want to live...
Finally, there is one thing that I want to add... I really love what Savater says about our Cultural reality and the huge importance that it has in all this issue of having a Good Human Life... There is no humanity without a cultural learning, and there is no cultural learning without the Language... How Nice!!! And at the same time how shocking it is to realise that we are such an important link in this chain! We are Teachers of English (or at least we are doing our best to become teachers)... we are Teachers of a Language! So we don't have to forget that we are a key part in the act of building the cultural learning... and from now on... we will always remember and bare in mind that all the decisions that we take are crucial not only for being a Good Human Being or for building our Good Human Life but also for showing our students that we are all part of this cultural world and as a part of it we all have something to do and something to give...
