The path

I

"I have cruel dreams; in my hurt soul
I feel a premature and vague fear.
I walk with fear on the edge of the future,
Soaked in longing for the present ...
Longing for this pain that I search in vain
Chase away from my chest so rudely,
And, as I faint in the sunset,
Is due to cover my heart with a dark veil! ...
Because the pain, this lack of harmony,
All that dishevelled light that illuminates
The souls foolishly, the sky of nowadays
Without her, the heart is almost nothing:
A Sun where the dawn would expire
Because it’s only dawn when it mourns.

II

You met me one day in the path
What I was searching for, not even I know.
“Good day, companion”, I saluted you
That the journey is greater going alone
Is far, very far away, there are many thorns!
You stopped to rest, I rested ...
In the yard where you laid down, where I did,
Each one of us drank of the same wine.
Is in the scarped hill, so lonely.
Cuts the feet as the rock of a calvary,
And burns as sand. It was however
Where we mourned each other’s pain ...
And the wine in which you cried was common:
We had to drink of the same grief.

III

It was good for us, so good, this delay:
Toughened the tired courage.
Here are our staffs of hiking,
The sun is already breaking: Let's go.
This wine, virginity of the aurora,
So virgin we don’t have in the journey ...
Let’s fill the marrows: by the road,
From here still this nectar strengthens! ...
To each one of us, a turn. I'm alone,
I want to meet, lonely, the entire path,
I can’t resist to the great calm.
Let me cry more and drink more,
Chasing madly my ideals,
And have faith and dream of filling my soul."

Camilo Pessanha, in 'Clepsidra'

Who dared to chase an ideal? Who had the courage to leave everything behind and follow a dream? Who had enough self-confidence to believe that it would be possible, and the perseverance to fight for it? Who had the will to learn, the will to build and the heart to reach? I'm talking about Peace, I'm talking about future... Or are the dreamers really mad, as they were so often called throughout History? I don't think so. But then, I'm a dreamer...

Does it really matter?

I'm having today one of those incredibly long days without inspiration.
While I was waiting for my husband to arrive with my mother-in-law, I was looking for a story in the Internet, which is intitled "It's good to be..." I found many "it's good to bes"; in fact, sixty pages of them, but I decided to focus on two. These have a very funny content, but incredibly representative in Sociological terms. After all, this is significant of what is still expected from a man or from a woman nowadays.

Why is it good to be a woman?
"There are advantages and gifts that men do not have:
Have the right to cry at the cinema.
We can use his piece of linen without looking ridiculous.
We fear the wrinkles, but not the baldness.
We can go to the bathroom in pairs without anyone commenting.
A short woman can use high heels to disguise her small stature.
With a little fond of teint, corrective blush and mask of eyelashes we can disguise any sign of tiredness.
The toilets of ladies are always the cleanest. Although sometimes ...
We can paint the nails of the hands and feet.
You do not need to be muscular to be sexy.
When we leave the hairdresser ... They notice it!"

http://www.forumfamilia.com/

Why is it good to be a man?
"A five-day travel requires only a backpack.
Phone conversations end up in thirty seconds or less.
No queues for the bathroom.
When touring TV channels, you don't have to stop when you see someone crying.
You can go to the bathroom without a support group.
If your work is criticised you aren't thinking everyone hates you.
If your work is praised, you aren't thinking what can be the second intentions.
You save time and money by washing the clothes every three weeks.
You can take a bath in less than five minutes.
You can dress in less than three minutes.
You can find the car keys in less than ten seconds.
You can park in waves that have less than two and a half times the length of your car.
When you drive, nobody tells you to do the laundry.
Cockroaches are only insects, not Japanese movie monsters.
Two pairs of shoes are enough: a black and a brown.
If someone forgets to invite you to something is just an oversight and not evidence that you are hated.
You don't have to shave below the neck.
None of your co-workers has the power to make you cry.
If you are thirty four years old and single, nobody minds.
Chocolate is a food like any other.
Flowers solve everything.
You don't have to worry about "hurting the feelings of others” to each call made.
Ana Maria Braga doesn’t exist in your universe.
The magazine "Caras" doesn’t exist in your universe.
You do not have the “tidy up your home” compulsion every fifteen seconds when someone rings the bell.
The mechanic tells you the truth.
You don’t care if someone sees or not you your hair cut.
If you're watching a game with a friend and he is in the most absolute silence for fourty-five minutes, it is because the game is good, and not because he is mad at you.
You do not depend on your spouse to schedule the VCR.
Hot wax and intimate parts are always at a respectable distance.
White hair and wrinkles add charm.
A broken fingernail is not the end of the world.
Nobody is looking at your chest while conversation.
Your relationship with your mother is absolutely normal.
If you say that you will call a friend you don’t, he doesn’t start moaning and the others do not form a Committee to solve the problem.
You do not fear the old age.
You don't have to remember everybody’s anniversaries of marriage and birth.
When you meet your friends, you know that you’re not going to face the phrase "Do you notice something new in me?"
Your friends do not force you to talk if you don’t have anything to speak.
The continuity of the universe does not depend on linen being changed every day.
Having a belly doesn’t prevent you from wearing t-shirt."

http://powerminas.com/

This isn't at all what I was looking for, I must say, but it gave me good reasons to think. Specially "None of your co-workers has the power to make you cry."

To respect the authoral rights, I decided to include the link to the original page.


Amazing, isn't it? I thought about the theme, myself, and I couldn't find specific reasons why it's good to be a man or a woman. Of course there's much more to it than these sometimes foolish sometimes reasonable reasons. What do you think?

Sweet spell

“I'd like to look at you,
And tell you that you're a light,
That illuminates my night, guides me during the day and seduces me.

I'd like to be like you,
Not to have wings and though be able to fly,
Have the sky as background, go to the end of the world and return.

I don't know what happened to me.
Was it a spell,
What happened to me?
To love someone, so much
As I do love you.

I'd like you to look at me,
And feel that I am your sea,
To dive without fear, a secret look, just for me
To embrace you.

[Refrain]
I don't know what happened to me.
Was it a spell,
What happened to me?
To love someone, so much
As I do love you.

The first impulse is always the fairest, the truest.
And the first fright spins and spins in the round turn of a deep kiss.

I ...
I don't know what happened to me.
Was it a spell,
What happened to me?
To love someone, so much
As I do love you.

I ...
I don't know what happened to me.
Was it a spell,
What happened to me?
To love someone, so much
As I do love you.

As I do love you.”


André Sardet