This afternoon, I attended a workshop on Japanese-style ceramic repair—kintsugi. For the workshop, I even brought a piece of pottery that I had broken on purpose so I could repair it during the session. One of these days, I’ll share this fantastic experience I had. At the end of the workshop, I was invited to attend a live music concert, where two Portuguese artists—a singer accompanied by a pianist—treated the audience to a fantastic performance.
Among the many songs—all in Portuguese and performed splendidly by the artist, who had a fantastic voice—the entire audience was left with goosebumps and smiles on their faces...
Halfway through the concert, I noticed that a young man sitting in the front row was wearing a T-shirt with a motto that caught my attention.
“We overthink, because we care a lot”
Is that really how it is? Do we care that much, and is that why we overthink things? It might actually be true...
The question is: where do we focus our attention? Where do we direct the attention we have? And couldn’t we think about more things, or worry about other things?
In a decade that began by forcing major changes in the way we relate to others—and to ourselves. The pandemic has greatly altered the way we view life. We thought we’d become more focused on what really matters, but it seems we’ve just become more inward-looking. To focus only on our needs… But not the basic ones, and not those of others. Of the needs we consider basic today, many aren’t, and almost none involve anything outside of ourselves.
An evolutionary step backward. Without a doubt.
Man did not populate the entire earth on his own. He did not achieve this by living for himself and by himself. Why are we led to believe today that great men are those who have accomplished great deeds, or who possess great fortunes?
The focus has shifted to personal prominence, rather than to the development and level of culture that each individual possesses.
A society in which information exists and is disseminated almost instantaneously leads to hyperproductivity and hyperefficiency being regarded as the pinnacle of development.
Are we moving toward making “machines” increasingly “human”—endowed with “intelligence”—while “humans,” on the other hand, become increasingly “mechanized”—carrying out “artificial” orders, or those dictated from outside? Acting solely on impulse and without critical thinking, I do not believe this is a step humanity should take… Or at least, it is a future that increasingly seems like an inevitable reality—but I am certain we will find a path that allows us to once again move toward clarity and humanity.
Photographed with Samsung A26 by 
Photographic edition with PhotoScape X
Original text in Portuguese written by