Arquivo de philosophy | Page 104 of 105

Vow of Silence

There is a character in my short stories who, doing a vow of silence, says: “peace of mind is deafness”. This character is me, in my unbearable reflections. There is nothing capable of me off more than the word, the rumor of a human voice. I say that and surely you think I’m joking. But whenever I imagine a perfect world, there is no sound: silence is absolute, undisturbed. And I wonder how soon I will be annoyed by the written word as well. Let’s be reasonable: I’m not thirty, but I’m almost seventy. What if, because of advancing age, by an understandable and even natural decrease in my tolerance with things, do graphic signs bother me? Well, then I really don’t know what else life can give me.

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Deignified!

The most estimable class of people is the one who lives mediocrely from home to work for decades without making too many plans, letting life run. They make children, they get married, separating or not. So retire and end their days with their face stuck on a television. I imagine this pattern and say: Deignified! Worthy of the most ardent praises! And all other people seem to me, in different hues, diminished and enslaved by their own desire.

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Lack of Maturity and Discernment

In our days there is a narcissism and an excessive concern about success that are a clear sign of lack of maturity and discernment. No one else accepts be mediocre. One either see himself above what he is, or he sees himself better in the near future. Of course, that can only lead to depression. I wonder how lighter the life is to those who say in front the mirror: “You are mediocre! Your existence makes no difference to the world! In a hundred years, no one will remember you!”

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Life As It Is, by Nelson Rodrigues

I threaten to press the key and, before pressing it, a wife cheats on her husband. My finger touches the keyboard and another consort repeats the action. I do not close the front line and thousands of wives — or would they be millions? — cheat on their husbands, on time, in various countries and several languages. Two thousand short stories Nelson wrote in series, day after day, for ten years, around the same theme: adultery. So it is just the question: would not he have exaggerated? Could not he perhaps have written a little less? From home, I hear the belt snap on the neighbor. No, no, no… Nelson undoubtedly got it right.

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