The opportunity
I don’t have a television at home, so I usually find out about the news late. This week a house burned down in my neighbourhood and the Dana tragedy happened in the Valencian community, panic spreads, lives are lost, material damage and stories that are not forgotten. Solidarity also emerges, the desire to help, superheroes without capes appear saving people from floods or flames, gestures of good neighbourliness are seen, kindness and compassion emerge around us, some hope in this desolate world that the current news shows us.
We have normalised seeing wars on television, slaves sewing our clothes to be fashionable, Chinese factories packed with people to make consumer goods from the West, queues of refugees crossing international borders, hate speech and fences that separate us from each other. However, these days tragedy is knocking at our door, it is very close to home, it is not taking place in a country or a city that we do not know how to pronounce, Christians and Muslims are not fighting once again, there are no missiles flying over our roofs, nor are there destruction of “military objectives” killing the elderly, women and children who were unable to take refuge.
In Valencia, the majority are white people, who speak our language, who celebrate religious holidays, who know who Lola Flores was, who enjoyed the Euro Cup a few months ago, who hope to collect their pension and dream of their son becoming a civil servant. In general, I am talking about middle-class families who are fortunate enough to enjoy two or three meals a day, to turn on the tap and have drinking water come out, to cook with gas and use the microwave or oven at home. I am talking about families like mine. It is easier for us to put ourselves in their shoes, although one will never be able to experience what another feels when losing a family member. Many businesses and families have lost everything. We understand their pleas and complaints better, they are more like us than an Arab or sub-Saharan immigrant, it is easier to feel the call and go out to help them.
Without a doubt, in tragedy, solidarity springs forth between neighbours who are having a hard time. There is also some local help and donations from thousands of Spaniards who want to help. There are human losses that will not return, but the streets will return to normal, we will forget about this tragedy until the next one comes. But I would like to remember that once again this current crisis offers us an opportunity, one that we should not waste.
I am referring to questioning our lifestyle, our ways of consuming and following fashions, our obsession with accumulation and shopping, our search for happiness in a shop, our search for security in the things that surround us. Of course, I am referring to our relationship with nature. They seem to be distant and foreign actions, but in reality we orchestrate them from very close by. I am referring to everyday purchasing and consumption decisions, to the companies that we support with our daily actions, I am referring to simple things like buying in a neighborhood supermarket or in a large store like the one that is being questioned today. I am referring to putting our savings in investment funds that offer good returns, without questioning that they invest in Spanish arms companies that participate in the genocide in Gaza. I am referring to being part of the culture of the big hit and speculation, without realizing the damage we do to our grandchildren. I am referring to the culture of the influencer and the desire to make easy and fast money. I am referring to the obsession with showing off, with buying the latest model of car, with telling others that we have achieved it.
Today is a good opportunity to ask myself what I can do for humanity. Today is a good opportunity to ask others how you are and how I can help you. Today is a good opportunity to stop talking for the sake of talking and listen more. Today is a good opportunity to raise our children surrounded by nature. Today is a good opportunity to start getting to know that neighbor who is “different” from us. Today is a good opportunity to leave our safe and comfortable apartments, to share more with our neighbors and return to living more in community, to build trust. Today is a good opportunity to pay a little more for local purchases and stop ordering from Amazon. Today is a good opportunity to smile and give more hugs. Today is a good opportunity to be supportive. Today is a good opportunity to find your place to help, to generate impact in your square meter.
And you… Have you asked yourself what the opportunity is?
