Needless to say, we don’t complain about obvious things. It’s hot, humid and sticky, I’m sweating, the ice-cream sellers are sweating, grannies, binmen, businessmen, posh ladies with wee dogs are sweating, the wee dogs are sweating too, Almodovar is sweating and so is the queen, and then we catch air-condition colds and we have runny noses in the middle of the summer (and the middle of the desert), and we feel fairly stupid because of that, after all what’s that supposed to be, wearnig sandals and taking Strepsils? Well, it’s hot and that’s it.
The same thing applies to size. Madrid is big, you can’t get your head around it, it systematically escapes the metro, growing in numbers and in square meters, greedy and proud, it unfolds extravagantly and never gets enough, city plans have fallen into a depression and the neighbouring towns can’t sleep at night for fear of being swallowed. It’s big and that’s it.
But people are a different story. People are not constant. People change, evolve, strive for better things. People are not an obvious thing. You can’t compare people to anything else. You demand more from people.
In that case complaining about people is justified. Since they posess the unique ability to become someone better overnight, it would be cruel not to encourage them from time to time to use their heavenly gift.
And therefore the stubborn and rude cashier in the bank, the screaming children, the thoughtless drivers, the landlords prejudiced against foreigners, the waiters upset with the whole world, the dog owners that can’t be bothered to bend over – all of them and many others deserve a pinch of constructive ctricism. A gesture of protest, a word of objection.
This role isn’t intended for us, though. The truth is very simple – we are just some of the many who can always be reminded that commandments are to be followed.
Let the one who wishes to complain return to the country he comes from. If your knowledge of the language isn’t good enough, they will make it easier for you and switch to English. If you don’t like it here, why don’t you go back to your country?
Here the understanding finishes. Because the answer to that question isn’t easy at all.
The same thing applies to size. Madrid is big, you can’t get your head around it, it systematically escapes the metro, growing in numbers and in square meters, greedy and proud, it unfolds extravagantly and never gets enough, city plans have fallen into a depression and the neighbouring towns can’t sleep at night for fear of being swallowed. It’s big and that’s it.
But people are a different story. People are not constant. People change, evolve, strive for better things. People are not an obvious thing. You can’t compare people to anything else. You demand more from people.
In that case complaining about people is justified. Since they posess the unique ability to become someone better overnight, it would be cruel not to encourage them from time to time to use their heavenly gift.
And therefore the stubborn and rude cashier in the bank, the screaming children, the thoughtless drivers, the landlords prejudiced against foreigners, the waiters upset with the whole world, the dog owners that can’t be bothered to bend over – all of them and many others deserve a pinch of constructive ctricism. A gesture of protest, a word of objection.
This role isn’t intended for us, though. The truth is very simple – we are just some of the many who can always be reminded that commandments are to be followed.
Let the one who wishes to complain return to the country he comes from. If your knowledge of the language isn’t good enough, they will make it easier for you and switch to English. If you don’t like it here, why don’t you go back to your country?
Here the understanding finishes. Because the answer to that question isn’t easy at all.
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