Luciano Duarte

It is always late to do what could have been done before, but it is always possible to get rid of the weight of not having tried. There are barriers for which the justification is gratuitous: if something sounds good, let it be done! The rest will be experience and learning. The mind has a hard time freeing itself from old ties, but the years show that it never regrets it when it overcomes mental resistance and takes a chance on something new that is sincerely desired; more than that: it is acts of this kind that often go down in memory as the best decisions.

There is no real satisfaction until the mind learns to focus on the small, the accessible and the quotidian. The mind is treacherous because, with eyes closed, the act is weightless and knows no limits. If one is careless, one can easily go too far, learning nothing and doing nothing. There may be pleasure, certainly distraction, but both are diaphanous, both are devoid of the characteristic density of the real, which substantiates the small and generates true fruit.

Choosing one path is always not choosing all the others, and that is what makes it special. Choosing, then, is choosing and giving up, and sustaining it involves both valuing the path chosen and accepting the distance from those not chosen. Many people cannot bear it, just as they cannot bear the fact that to live is to choose. However, whether one likes it or not, giving up a choice is also a choice, and one ultimately reaps the rewards of this decision.