Work, and Life.

Ah, yes – those aspects of life we are so obsessed with balancing, whatever that means. It means different things to different people, of course.

Work to live, or live to work – it’s a choice we must all make. I know I personally have to be careful about spending too much time in the office. But that may be the result of financial hardships: in 2016, I had to put my 24-year old company in bankruptcy, which dragged me down into personal bankruptcy. It was a helluva way to enter my fifties!

I could’ve gotten depressed, or angry…just wallow in misery; but how would that have helped? I rolled up my sleeves and got back to rebuilding.

Work provides us with the means to live, to essentially climb Maslow’s first step of his pyramid. We exchange time and skill in return for remuneration, which we in turn exchange for what we want or need.

Sundays in Sevilla are special: they are meant for family; most stores are closed. We are only a few minutes’ walk from Parque Maria Luisa, a huge urban park where families flock to spend time together.

It is an unbelievable sight: mothers, fathers, sons and daughters – all spending time together!

My wife and I were in a restaurant back home a week or two before coming here; at the table beside us was a family of four. Mom and Dad were both on their cell phones while the two kids were bored and getting restless. No presence, no sense of family. Empty. Vacuous.

The complete opposite of what we see here; no cell phones in sight. Parents talking, kids playing.

What have we done to ourselves?

At the entrance to the park – or the exit, depending on which direction you’re heading – stands a monument that reminds us:

“El trabajo” – work. There is time enough for that, but Sundays are for family.

¡Hasta luego!