I love Sundays, and I find a quiet rainy one particularly special, I’m happy when it rains. Today I woke up not late (around noon, you judge) after a nice evening with a Mx friend walking around a very popular zone in the East of Rome and then to a “centro sociale” near the main train station (I’ll explain what social centers are on another post).
Through him, I’ve meet a small group of Italians that are very much into in social, political and economic activism, from which I take the most I can in terms of understanding the mentality of people that are undergoing a crisis such as the one happening in Europe. Some of the conversations have to do with the old ways of living during decades of economic growth and prosperity. It’s hard as well to ask them if they have lived a crisis like this one in their lives and their answer is “no”.
This is very interesting because it helps me understand that many people may expect and desire a “change” because this is the lowest low they’ve ever known in their lives. But it’s also these times in which people need to give an extra, be innovative, learn a new language, or do new things that can help catch up with a changing world.
But of course if you have never lived through an ugly period as this, how would you know this is THE TIME to do so? And this is the reality that as a foreigner I am currently experiencing. I mean, in 30 years there will be books of economics talking about the crisis in Europe, so I’m curious to see how things end like, while the story is being written as we speak.
All this sociocultural leanings in fact deserve arguments, examples and more fundamentals than what I’m willing to write and elaborate more on today, so I won’t go into details (though I’ve love to chat over a cup of coffee or a Skype call). But as anyone who knows me a bit can tell, they’re one of my favorite conversation topics and I always appreciate people open to discuss such things.
So yes, today rained most of the day, people must complain about this “tempo di merda” (shitty weather). On the other hand today I played some guitar, thought a lot about economic systems, high welfare countries vs. consumed capitalist societies that lower their worker’s quality of life at a very fast pace, etc. etc. … and even had time to write a blog entry, which I hadn’t done in weeks. I’d say this rainy Sunday couldn’t get any more productive than this. And if it wasn’t enough, I still have to call my mom in Mexico…
Besides, I saw this very nice phrase around the web, which kind of wraps up a conclusion I struggled to make for myself all day long:
