Uncertainty

Human beings are designed to work for objectives, to live with a purpose. However, considering we do not know anything about what is our purpose in life, or our future, we usually cling to the first belief we consider as acceptable, I mean, the one that answers all or most of our transcendental questions about the meaning of life.
Some people decide to embrace some of the hundreds of different religions, others prefer to trust in conclusions obtained from the study of the objective facts (science). And, there are also people who pretend (in my humble opinion) they do not believe in anything. You also have quick service options like fortune-telling in any of its variants (reading palms, tea leafs in a cup, interpreting dreams, cartomancy, crystal ball, etc.). The only thing I can say for sure is that, apparently, nobody knows the universal truth, despite the fact that a lot of them guarantee that they hold it. At this point, I think there are two possibilities. Firstly, the ones who really know the truth have not yet released it, maybe because they are afraid that the rest of us will not understand it, or will simply ignore it, or about the possible consequences that it could trigger. On the other hand, it is also likely that the truth was already told and we are not smart enough to understand it, or even to listen to it. This last possibility is easy for me to believe because I am not a big believer in human race (even when I am part of it). I want to believe that there is a big potential inside us, but there is also a lot of confusion that lead us to make very bad choices, and these choices are defining the way we live our lives.

The uncertainty we are immersed in could be the reason for a lot of non-sense arguments, fights and suffering. Everybody believe (or want to believe) that they are right and all the others are wrong. Therefore, they try to transmit their ideas, to fight for them, or even to impose them.
Moreover, there are people more concerned about material things, but smart enough to use other people's beliefs in order to manipulate them, and to use them to obtain their own benefit, no matter what it takes.
We can see very often that there is some law or contract not perfectly defined, there is always somebody who is able to find the breach and invalidate it. The good thing about absolute truth is that there is no breaches, it is seamless. But, the problem is that we have to be able to analyze it thoroughly and without prejudices. And, we also need to consider the possibility that it could be better not finding it out. Sometimes ignorance brings you happiness. Anyway, I prefer to believe that everything makes sense, and someday we will be able to understand everything that has been causing so many troubles and pain so far.
I would say, emulating Socrates, that uncertainty is the only certainty. And we have to live with that, at least for now. So, enjoy uncertainty!

Friday night fever

I admit that this title can be a bit confusing. You can think that I am going to write about one friday night out partying, and I chose this title after the famous 70's movie 'Saturday night fever' starred by John Travolta. However, I think this title is more appropriate for my story than for that movie. Anyway, I am starting my story and after reading it you can judge yourself if I am right or wrong.
It is Sunday morning and I have been awake since 7:30 in the morning. This behavior is not very common for me. There are two reasons for it and I will explain them below.
First of all, I could not go out last night nor the night before despite having made plans. During Friday morning I started feeling sick, and I had fever. I spent all Friday afternoon lying in bed but my condition was getting worse and worse, and my body temperature kept rising. Finally, I went to the emergency room in the nearest health center at 2am. While I was there, I fainted and then I started to feel even worse. Therefore, the doctor decided to send me to the hospital. I reached the hospital by ambulance and I spent there the rest of the night, while the doctors were running several tests trying to find out the origin of my illness. When they got test results back, it was obvious that I had an infection. At that time, there was only one question left to answer, and it was about the focus of the infection. When they asked me about any recent wounds, I show them a blister on the bottom of my left foot and then the doctor realized that the foot was quite red and hot, so that would probably be the origin of the infection. He gave me a prescription for some antibiotics and some painkillers, and recommended rest for my legs during several days.

After the explanation above, I still did not clarify why I got up so early this morning. Well, I had to take my medication to fight the infection and to avoid bigger problems. Besides, after being lying in bed or in stretchers for more than 24 hours in a row, I really prefer standing.
In any case, I would have preferred to write about partying all night long, or even dancing (taking into account that my dancing skills are pretty bad).

Applesauce

Around my parents' house there are a lot of fruit trees, and now it is time for apple-trees to give us their gifts. That is the reason why I have been enjoying a lot of applesauce lately. It is very easy to prepare and it is really delicious. Yesterday, I even had it for breakfast.
There has been a long time since I wrote my Spanish omelette recipe here, therefore I am going to explain how you can cook the apples, and I am sure you will like the result as much as I do.
You will need some apples, the more you get, the more quantity of applesauce you will obtain. You have to peel and core them and cut them in pieces (the smaller they are, the shorter it will take to complete the recipe). Then put all the pieces into a pot with some water, and put the pot in the fire. After that, you just need to let it start boiling and try to stir the mix to avoid it sticking to the bottom of the pot. When you see that it is soft enough, you can remove it from heat and allow it to cool for some hours.
Finally, I will let you take a look at the result and the main ingredient. It looks tasty, and I can assure you it is actually tasty. You should try it yourself.

Dictionary

Several days ago, something odd happened to me. I was trying to find out if a Galician word should be written in one way or another. I should clarify that I am a native speaker in Galician language, however in last years a lot of changes have been made in our language and that encouraged me to look up the word I had doubts about in the online official Galician dictionary. I was astonished for a long while, apparently those words do not exist. I am starting to think that I am not a native Galician speaker anymore. I have been trying to improve my English level for years in order to become a trilingual, and now I discover that I should study Galician again.
It was hard to believe the situation explained above, therefore I decided to add a couple of self-explanatory images to this post.

It would have been understandable if I could not find the term I was looking for. Nevertheless, I should have looked for avó -oa instead of avó. It sounds a little strange to me, and from now on I will not trust this dictionary very much. Would you?

Just walk

Yesterday, I woke up at 8 in the morning, several minutes before the alarm started ringing. It was something strange because I had gone to bed less than 3 hours before, but I decided to get up and have some breakfast. At that time I was feeling a bit tired and quite sleepy, but I was thinking about to go hiking around my village. A friend of mine had told me about this activity a couple of weeks ago and then I was considering to attend. After having breakfeast, I put some comfortable clothes on and I left home heading to the park where the trail started. My home is about one kilometer away from the starting point, so I went there walking in order to warm up. In my view, it was a success in terms of participation because there were about thirty people ready to start walking at 9:30 on Sunday morning. The weather was a bit cloudy and uncertain when we started but it was getting better during the morning.
I enjoyed a lot this activity, however I have to admit that my first thought when I was told about it was boring. In the end, I had a good time walking around my village, I discovered some places that I did not know about, and I had the opportunity to chat with some of my neighbors that I do not see very often.
In summary, I am looking forward to doing this activity again soon. In the meantime, I will add some of the places we visited yesterday to my running routes. In particular, I will use a narrow path by the river that I consider a really good option during the summer because you can go in the shade during almost all the route.

Spies

I have just realized that in days when I feel physically exhausted is when I feel more inspired and I need to write or to express my concerns the most. Today, I have been reading thoroughly the newspaper while I was having a cup of tea after lunch. The bar where I usually go to have a coffee or a tea after lunch was quieter than usual. There is a good explanation for that, there are two main events in the surroundings. Firstly, today is a day of celebration in the neighborhood. On the other hand, in the nearest town there is a major event, widely known, and a main attraction for a lot of foreigners and locals. This two celebrations and high temperatures in the area last days contributed to keep people in bed having some rest after a long night, or enjoying a day sunbathing on the beach.
My situation was a bit different this year, therefore I went to bed quite early last night after a long hard day. This morning, I decided to go for a ride on my mountain bike, and I was pedaling for two and a half hours. When I got home I was considerably tired and, after having lunch, I had to take a nap to recover. Then, I went out and I had my tea while reading the newspaper.
After these lines explaining why I am writing this post, I am going to briefly make a comment about one thought that came to my mind while reading. I have found an analogy between spies and journalists. They are always searching for information, they always want that information before anyone else, when they publish some information the effects can be unpredictable, and they are not really independent because there are a lot of economic and politic interests involved and big companies own all or part of the shares in main communication media all over the world. In conclusion, when we read and article in a newspaper we should not expect to find the truth, just one of the sides' version. This is a bit different when there is a military conflict, then the winner takes it all (like Abba sing in one of their songs), and writes history from his own perspective. The more I think about this subject, the more similarities I find between spies and journalists. Maybe the main difference is that journalists are in the public eye, while spies prefer to keep their identities hidden in order to make their job easier and safer. Another important difference is the area where they focus their attention. Spies usually trade with classified data from big companies, or compromising information about governments or well-known politicians and businessmen. The explanation for that behavior is all about the money, spies are a kind of elite team of mercenaries available to obtain, or even create, the information necessary to carry out some sort of plan. In summary, they both do a similar job but with a different goal in mind.

Words

I should not be writing this post. What is the point in writing or talking if you do not communicate or transmit something (an idea, some knowledge, feelings, etc.)? It does not make sense at all, does it?
Why do a lot of people talk and talk without saying anything that deserves to be heard? I have a theory, based in my experience. I think they love to hear their voice, maybe the same way when I enjoy listening to a singer playing a song.
It is nice to enjoy a good conversation with other people, but it is not very interesting when somebody talks about something without any interest or when tries to impose his or her ideas, or to manipulate you using their speech. Another bad use of words is when they are used to tell lies. When you do not want to share something with other people, you only have to remain silent, there is no need to lie. You can use your imagination for other more productive tasks.
I consider these behaviors unacceptable, but apparently they are widely accepted among public opinion.
I have always been quite cautious about expressing my opinions, and I like to think about what I am going to say before actually saying it. Sometimes, I would like to be more spontaneous, but the fact is that I am not. There are things that never change, for better or worse. I love to share my thoughts with other people, and I also like to hear other people's ideas, especially when they disagree with me. Then, I have to analyze what I heard and I usually learn things that I did not know or another point of view. If you take the time to listen to other people's opinions with an open mind, you will show your good education and you will likely learn something new.
In the end, it looks that I had more to say than I actually thought. I hope you think this lines deserve to be read, otherwise I am sorry to waste your time. Anyway, it was a good exercise to continue writing in English. I have to take advantage of every chance I have to write. I admit that some of the post are more interesting than others. That is because my inspiration is not always the same.