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It has been a long and an enriching trip, don't you think?
And what a nice way of ending a book of ethics has Savater chosen: "After all, it is probable that it may not be a real book of ethics..."!
And I have to say that I do love it simply because by doing this he wanted to show us that there is no "User's Guide" in terms of Ethics and this means that it is only inside of us that we will find our own Ethics...
We may perfectly listen to many different people, opinions, advices, experiences but, all the same, the only way is "to think it over", to reflect... to analyse and, what I think is the most important thing, to be coherent and honest with ourselves. It is our duty from now on to keep on thinking and although it is only through (and with) others that we will be able to achieve a Human Life, we don't have to forget that we are the ones that can take our own choices. No one will come and tell us which path to follow or what to believe in...
Difficult? Yes! Impossible? NO WAY!
Everything will sooner or later be possible if it is something that pursues HAPPINESS, JOY and LOVE...
And finally, as Savater wrote: "Good Bye, my friendly reader, and try to avoid wasting your life hating (no matter whom) or being afraid"
In this chapter Savater talks about plenty of ideas and conflics between Ethics, Politics, politicians... but I would like to concentrate in some few ideas that I find really interesting... There is one thing that he says that for is crucial: Ethics cannot wait Politics. We have to know that we can not wait until politics solve all our problems in order to start solving our own ones... It's the other way about: since Politics has to do with the harmonious coexistence of all the human beings, we cannot expect Politics to function perfectly if every single individual within the society do not care about living their lives ethically... We have to start the change from the most simple thing and not the other way about... We know that our every day situation, especially in Argentina, is not the most desirable or the best one, but we have to be aware of the fact that we still can do something to improve our lives and our society... the fact is that sometimes many people tend to say that as our country's situation is not good, how can they possibly be good if within a society so unfair and violent? Well that's exactly where the answer is: the only way in which out country can start becoming a better place to live in is by giving our best as indiviuals who at the same time form part of something else (the society) and try to keep on believing in our own capacity of choosing, deciding, sharing, helping, guiding and living our lives in the best we can: living a Human Life (with all the ideas we have been discussing so far while reading this beatiful book)... We, as teachers or teachers to be, have to be aware of the fact that we can be one of those who have that incredible and challenging mission of showing others that the change (in our country, society, school, and so on) is something that will only we achieved if we first start the change from our own every day lives... Ww don't have to forget that it won't be something easy to do, at all... but we are the ones that can show our students that the best way of living your life "humanly" is by means of assistance... i.e. being willing and ready to help, guide and accompany others when they need it... Help, guide, accompany... doesn't it sound familiar to you? Yes, we know them... these three words are the most important roles of the teacher... So, don't you think that being an English teacher, or a teacher of any subject, is more than that? Well, I do... We are more than teachers... we are Educators, Guiders, Helpers... So when someone come and ask you "What is your profession?" or "what do you do?" just answer "I am a Teacher"... and be sure that that is something you'll be always proud of...
"Nothing is Bad JUST because you feel well doing it"... I really find this quote very telling of what is discussed in this chapter, and I think it is like that... I mean, many times we find people saying that something is bad or that we cannot do this or that just because it's "badly" seen by other people...Now, the question is: Is something bad just because someone else says so? What a question! With all this we are going an step further since we are talking about what is Good or Bad (ethically speaking)... Well, I think that the only way to answer this question is to see if what we want to do is something that will help us to live the Human Life we want to live or if is goes against ourselves or someone else... and if it does go against one of the keys of a human life we can say that it is something bad... There is nothing bad in doing something for pleasure... the only problem or the only reason why we tend to reject anything that gives us pleasure is because of what Savater calls the oldest fear of the human being: Our Fear of Pleasure...the fact is that we don't have to be afraid of it but to be aware that as well as it happens with everything else we have to be very careful in order to avoid going into extremes...As long as it doesn't go against ourselves, our lives or someone else's life any pleasure will be (ethically) bad...The idea is that if you are hurting someone else or making him/her feeling like they are not humans your pleasure will automatically stop being something good (at least from the ethical point of view). We don't have to forget that the only thing we can get from any pleasure is joy...and if we happen to lose it as a consequence of some pleasure we have we may be doing wrong and not acting according to what we really want... Do you remember? Yes, the difference between what I think I want and what I really want... So, don't lie to ourselves! If we stop being happy by doing something we believe gives us pleasure, we will have to realise that that is not actually a pleasure simply because for it to be so it has to make us feel well, happy, joyful...
So, now, our job will be to be able to put pleasure to the service of joy and happiness, something that won't be an easy task at all but it is not impossible either...
There are two ideas that I like most from this chapter...
The first one has to do with the comparison that Savater does between the ones that are born rats and the ones that are born lions... I do live the idea of the rat asking itself "what is going to happen to me?" and the lion asking itself "what am I going to do?"... I really feel identified with such a comparison since it sometimes happens to me that at some moment I ask myself if what I'm doing is because I want to do it or if it has some external reason...
It's true that there are meny things that I simply do because I want to and I'm willing to do them at that moment, but it's also true that sometimes I found myself suffering what I'm doing instead of enjoying it... The fact is that it is very difficult for to draw a line between what I do for pleasure and what I have to do, e.g. the fact that I have to get up too early in the morning to travel every day to the place in which I'm studying is a direct consequence of my choosing to study in that place and not in some other one nearer my home... So, if I decide to live my life as a lion I'll have to say that it doesn't matter because it's a consequence of my own decision, but if decide to be like the rat I'll claim that it's unfair and that I do not deserve it because it has just happened to me and I have nothing to do with it...
Now, if I decide to live like a rat I would have a terrible problem since I wouldn't be living my life but suffering it... however, if I decide to live like a lion I'm going to be proud of what I'm doing and feel satisfied since in spite of the fact that all that I'm doing is not something easy I'm doing it because I want to, because it's the life I want to live...
What a difficult issue! Well, at least it is so for me as I'm in a period of my life in which I don't know where I'm standing, if I'm the lion or the rat... I think that at least most of the time I'm like the lion but, as I'm not perfect and I'm just learning how to cope with everything, I have to say that sometimes I found myself thinking like a rat...
And finally I want to say that I do believe that the best way to live our lives (if we want to be loved and have a good human life) is to be able to empathise with the others, the main idea entailed in this concept is to be able to feel what someone else feels. So if we feel sad when someone feels sad and we feel happy when someone feels happy we won't make them feel sad or bad but, on the contrary, we will try to make them feel well, happy, joyful... As we are all humans, we are the only ones that can understand and feel what someone else (another human being) is feeling, so don't miss this incredible oportunity to live the human life we are aiming to... don't forget that the only way of living a good human life is to share it with another person, with another human being!
"I think there's something more, life's worth living for
Who knows what could happen
Do what you do, just keep on laughing
One thing's true, there's always a brand new day
I'm gonna live today like it's my last day"
(Avril Lavigne, "Who knows". Album: Let Go)
I love this song and I think it expresses clearly what I'm trying to say...
("I'm gonna live today like it's my last day", I believe in this line she wants to say that she will live her everyday life cheerfully and enthusiastically... and I think it also related to the fact that if we want to do something why don't we do it today instead of posponing it...)
I know that it's very difficult sometimes, but... just keep on laughing!!!
