A Short Poem

Life Anthem

Don't waste time dealing with pain and sorrow

Forget about yesterday, don't live for tomorrow

Countless reasons to find that will make your day

If "Carpe Diem" is the form in which you pray.

An Afforism

"Do your part, don't be put down by circumstance; you never know how events will finally turn out".

The Art of Loving

CHAPTER 1

      What is love? Is it possible to explain a feeling? How is love related to beauty or success? These and more questions are arisen by Eric Fromm in the first chapter of "The Art of Loving".

      

      The first issue to be discussed is related to lovability or as the dictionary defines it: "Attracting or deserving affection". According to Fromm, the two elements that humans believe they need to deserve this are, being successful and being attractive.

      

      To continue,  Fromm makes a distinction between the problem of love as an object or as a faculty. A love that is spontaneous and then may lead to marriage? or a love that grows after two persons are forced to get married? A twentieth century love? or a Victorian love? This dichotomy leads to a question: Is love related to materialism? Can love be compared to the need of buying what we see in a window shop?

      

      In the last part, Fromm states that the difficult part is not to fall in love, which is relatively easy. It is to stand in love, to be able to live through routine and boredom. It is exactly at that stage when we have to understand love as an art, and to be able to master both practice and theory.

      

      An interesting thought provoking chapter that leaves us wanting more with an intriguing question. Is it only worthy to be learned those things that provide prestige and money? 

Scottish Independence for Dummies

Today we have experienced in Spain a simulation of an "Independence Referendum". Though it looked as if it were an official one, it was only a consultation for the Catalonian population. However, not long ago, Europe went through an official process of independence of an English speaking country. Of course I am talking about the Scottish Independence issue.

Although I am not really into politics, my curiosity was awakened so I checked to what extent there were similarities between the Catalonian situation and the Scottish situation. I did some research, and as it usually happens to me when I am surfing the internet, I soon got lost in tons and tons of information that made me drift away from the main topic. 

All in all, apart from finding some useful information about the issue, I came across an article that I found quite curious. It is the story of the relationship between England and Scotland told as if they were two friends that share a flat. The good thing is that there are continuous callouts in the text that explain what are they really talking about, however, I recommend reading the whole thing and then check these callouts. Of course, you will realize soon that the writer was for the independence, I wish he had been more neutral, so the reader can make his/her own conclusions, but the thing to highlight is the metaphor that depicts both countries as flatmates. Enjoy!