domingo, 24 de maio de 2009

My Theory (2): About gifts...

Few days ago I received a comment from a very important person for me that my blog is too sad lastdays. I totally agree and I decided to change it :). Therefore, I am back to my theories.

I don’t know about you – and it may sound as another sad topic for some of you – but I am (and I always been) particularly interested on the topic of the existence. It could be summarized on the most common questions, such as: why are we here? What is our objective on Earth? etc. Generally, those are easier questions for people attached to any religion – and I am truly happy for them in this sense. I am not one of these people, even though I must confess that I am daily more favourable to the existence of a God. For those that didn’t know me that much, it’s a huge advance – believe me. But this conversation here has nothing to deal with religion (except for the part that I already wrote about) hehe.

When I was in my high school I had the chance to meet some awesome professors that really changed my life. One of them was my “writing” professor (redação) – hope this translation is somehow okay. If my memory is not betraying me, her name was Luz – light, in Portuguese. (Such a nice name for a person... :) ).

She once told us a history that never left my mind. There was a philosopher that some years ago found as a conclusion of his studies that it wouldn’t matter WHAT you do, if you’re the BEST on what you’re doing. Sounds to be a bit obvious but the repercussion of the history shows us that is not that simple.

Having this idea in mind, he decided that he would be the best thief in the world. He was quite successful for a while and stole many important things from many places in the world. Obviously after a while he was caught by the cops – I guess he realized he could even be the best, but not perfect.

That small story always brought me the question: “What could you do that you feel like being it’s the BEST thing you can do?” It’s a question that I never could answer easily. I’ve met some people in my life that were able to say that: “If I am doing something (generally a position in a work related position) it’s because I know I am the BEST on it”. I felt many times I was very good doing many things, but to answer: what’s the best I can do... I don’t know what to say.

For a while my answer was: to play FreeCell. :D I used to be addicted to that game and able to finish all matches in a very short time. I know that’s a stupid possibility and I was just joking even with myself about it, but again the conclusion for this stupid hypothesis is what matters for me. Let’s imagine that indeed there is someone that is the best person in the world playing FreeCell. Where to this “gift” could take this person? It may sound silly, but if you change the “gift” for soccer (or any other sport), management, health issues, even poker, being a lawyer, and many other examples... it could take this person to the top of the world. Could the person that has as the “gift” to be a FreeCell player reach the top of the world?

And what if my (or your gift) is something that is not appreciated by the society? What should we do?? And for the ones that didn’t find this gift? Until when should we search for it? What about the people this fooled by a hypothetical gift for years and figured out that it wasn’t his gift? *** What if some us just doesn’t have one (I really don’t believe on that... but the proof would be so hard, that I should leave the doubt here to do not compromise all the theory)?

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*** Extra: Now I reminded something else there I would like to share with you. If you’re not interested, just jump this part...

When I think about this topic, it always comes to my mind the movie about it. It’s called Amadeus (1984) and tells us the history of Mozart. The history is narrated by Antonio Salieri – a “colleague” of Mozart that makes a pact with God to give him the gift of playing piano incredibly. At some point on the movie, Mozart is on the piano and they ask Salieri to go there and perform his last composition – he was “Vienese court composer”. Mozart – that heard the song just one time – performs it perfectly. It makes Salieri extremely disappointed and frustrated and he feels like he was betrayed by God on his pact. At that moment, somehow, he realized – at least for his standards – that he didn’t have an actual gift.

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And then, how could we go further? There are some people that clearly already know what their gifts are. It doesn’t mean that they are the best on it in the world. But it’s definitely the thing that they can do at best. That’s a good example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7fxIWIQ0ww

And there are also some people able to show that they can do something really good even when nobody would believe on that.

That’s another good example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7ijwEwAvdo

I don’t know about you, but I am seeking for my gift. And... What about you? Have you found yours already?

Um comentário:

Marcela disse...

Hi!
I'm really happy to read your post and so realize that I'm not the only one still looking for my "gift" (I like the word you used!)hehe And I'm even happier to see that you don't seem sad anymore! I hope everything it's going good with you! See you soon =)