I hear Maduro decree that Christmas begins on October 1st and I remember that speech Bananas in which the leader of an imaginary country announced that from that day on the official language would be Swedish, citizens had to change their underwear every hour and a half, and all minors under 16 would be 16 years old. Woody Allen’s parody made real, sad tropics. I’m not going to say that I’m surprised and I won’t pretend to be shocked by the grotesque Christmas advance, between pine cones and pheromones, in the supermarkets here there are already nougats and shortbreads. We live in a hurry. The autumn television season started in the middle of summer, Jorge’s diary arrived in July; Telecinco’s other big bet, Babylon Showhurried his landing on the prime time to show that you can fail even if you have no rivals, and it consolidates itself with each broadcast as the best promotional campaign for any other program that is broadcast at that time on another channel, even on Netflix.
We were still leaning on the beach bar while Ana Rosa and Sonsoles returned to work. When I read that they were “returning from vacation early” I was worried, that expression makes me think of accidents, unforeseeable tragedies that tear you away from sweet doing nothing to throw you into a hell of tickets at exorbitant prices and impossible connections. It wasn’t like that. They ended their vacations early to follow the resolution of the Sancho case, they didn’t want to miss a tear, a speculation or a morbid detail that doesn’t contribute anything positive. Nobody seemed surprised by it and I find it devastating. The four-hour work week generates debate when what should shock us is that someone takes time away from their rest voluntarily.
There is not a day that goes by when someone does not point the finger at “young people” for not prioritizing work. I often hear this from my peers who are unable to understand that their new colleagues want to work to live and not live to work. It seems logical to me, we should aspire to spend less and less time at work, if not none at all. A civilization that is busy looking for water on Mars instead of focusing all its efforts on finding out how we could live without working is doomed to failure. Broncano has taken it easy, he will not win the battle of the future. sharebut he has enjoyed a couple of weeks of extra vacation. Before the course has even started, he has already shown that he is the smartest in the class.
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