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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!!!
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...
What an interesting title for this chapter! "Do Whatever You Want"...
What does he mean by writing this? From the very first impression it sounds a bit liberal, doesn't it?
What does this idea mean to us? That's the question, I would say...
It is important to remember that when he talks about doing whatever we want, he means that we are free to choose and, as a consequence, we can choose to do whatever we want...
But, what does "freedom" mean then? Well, we don't have to forget that freedom is not only being able to decide but also being aware of what you are deciding, which is, by the way, not an easy task at all...
When we talk about decisions, we don't have to avoid thinking about the orders, habits and whims that make us act in a certain way at a certain situation... But we have to remember that these "influences" are just one aspect of the complicated art of taking decisions...
As time goes by, we grow older and we do not have to do what our parents want us to do... or we may move to another place, completely different from ours, and suddenly we find us having to face a radical change in our habits... so, are orders, habits and whims valid for taking all our decisions? How are we going to take such decisions without being told what to do or without having our typical habits?
What a question! "How are we going to take our decisions if we are not told what is expected from us in order to be able to live our lives in the best way possible (i.e. being a good person)?"
At this point we may have no answers for this question, but at least we have the question "What is it to be a good person, a good human being?" (Let me tell you that this is a perfect beginning! We have found us asking a key question in Ethics!)
Of course that each of us will find many different answers for this huge question... but we have to be patient... Finding this answer is a long-life process...
Choices, Choices and Choices...
Isn't life about making decisions?
Now the question will be not only to be aware of the fact that we are free to make choices (of course with some limitations as there are certain things that we do not choose)... but also we may came up with this question: Which is our motivation to make such decisions?
Why do I get up in the morning and go to the teachers' training collage? Why do I choose to get up and not to stay in bed and sleep all the hours I would like to? Why do I brush my teeth instead of going out without doing it?
Well, by answering all these questions we will be finding out why we do certain things and not others...
Furthermore, do we do them because we have to do them? because we are used to doing them? or because we want to? Is our motivation an order? a habit? or just a whim?
However, all this issue is not the most important thing to pay attention to while reading Savater's beautiful chapter II because when we come to think about this kind of decisions (motivated by an order, a habit or a whim) we find that they are not enough for us to make those important and difficult decisions that take us to Ethics...
If we know that someone is used to stealing and he/she does it frequently, will that be right (ethically speaking) just because it is a habit?
If someone is obliged to kill another person just because a person over him tells him to do it, will that be right (ethically speaking) just because it is an order?
Are you sure now that everything you do is a consequence of your own decision? Or you just act because you are "programmed" to do so (programmed by yourself: a whim or programmed by some else: an order or a habit)?
Why have you done that and not something else?
Not only the decision but also the REASON WHY WE MAKE SUCH DECISION IS OURS...
What about Ethics?
It can be said that it is the field in which the human being spends his time thinking about what is actually relevant for him in order to achieve a "good" life...
But now the question is, what is a "good" life? Well, let me tell you that this huge question hasn't got just one single answer... Why? Simply because we are all different... and, since we have different views on what is good or bad for us, we will have, as a consequence, many different views on what is a "good" life...
There are two main concepts that will help us to understand this issue better: Freedom and Choice (which are, by the way, very connected concepts since in order to be able to make any Choice we will need to have the Freedom to do it).
In his book, as usual, Savater gives us a very clear example to understand the relation between this words and our "good" lives. He makes a connection between our decisions and that ones made by animals: the idea is that animals are naturally programmed to behave in a certain way; but what about we, human beings? Are we programmed by someone? or Are we free to make our own choices?
Let's think about us in our daily lives. When we are asked to do something, don't we have the opportunity of refusing to do it? Yes! Of course we can say No (no matter whether we will have to face any consequence after saying no, the fact is that we are free to choose).
Furthermore, there is one more thing to say here; we don't have to forget that we are not (always) able to choose what is going to happen to us but, on the other hand, we can choose how to react to it...
To sum up, let me tell you that I really now that all this issue of having the responsibility of being the ones who can change our own lives is not an easy task at all... but, after all, everything is in our hands...THE DECISION IS OURS... Which is going to be your next choice?...
