We were sitting on a branch of a tree. Harry
was facing me, and I was facing him, but I was lower, kind of sliding back. My
position seemed quite awkward to him. We were drinking mate, and he said ¨You
are comfortable in positions I wouldn´t¨ There was a pause, and I just thought,
how that happens to me in life a lot. I find myself in positions where I feel
extremely comfortable, and most people don´t. Note that in Spanish the word
¨position¨ can be used, not only in the fiscal sense, but also us in a
situational way.
And swimming trough what it´s considered uncomfortable by many people
can be a whole adventure. I don´t perceive this uncomfortableness so I simply
dive. Feeling how deep I am getting, and how nice it is to have that water run
against your body, in the opposite direction, but letting you go deeper, and
deeper, like saying ¨yes, go through me¨.
People question this lot. Mostly thinking you are putting up a character,
to seduce, to look different. But to me, it is the way I live. In Ecology we
study all these different species, and how each one uses one part of the pool
of resources, or the different sites in an area. Some species are very
generalist, finding them everywhere, but not where conditions are ¨stressing¨
(salinity, low oxygen, little nutrients), and there are some other species you
only find them there, where conditions are stressing, because they can tolerate
that. But when conditions are favorable, they can´t compete with the others. I
like to think I am one of those.
I was in school today, I went by bike. It takes me around 40 min to get
there. In the middle of the class, it began to rain; we were all alert by it.
Many of my classmates go by bike too. Those who don´t, said ¨you deserve it for
playing to be hippie¨ One said ¨I do it because I am poor, not hippie¨ and I
just thought, ¨I do it because I love bicycling¨, but I remained silent. As we walked out, one of my friends offered me
a poncho, lovely. One more time: the kindness of people shows up when you need
it the most. My smile was bigger than anything, as if I had just got a new Mercedes
Benz (I wouldn´t smile at that
actually). And another friend asked me
which way I was taking. He said he had a better one than the one I usually
take. So I followed him. It was like a biking adventure in any forest. We went
by places in school I had never seen before. And we talked, we shared our
thoughts on many things, and we got to know each other. Then we said goodbye
and I continued on my own. Smiling to people, singing, feeling happy with the
rain. Enjoying the rain, so, so much. Being comfortable in that situation.
In the last traffic light I stopped, and what did I see? The raindrops
hitting the water in the street. What did I see? Bubbles.
The night before leaving Harry said ¨I just think you have the ability
to find every situation special, or crazy¨ Maybe so, I don´t know, it just
seems crazy, funny, and I fucking love it.
