Some Feedback.

Comments about yesterday’s note as well as some questions about what has been written.

Thank you, once again, not only for reading the blog but for also taking the time to react to it. Your comments, especially when you tell me about some similar experiences or when you have a question, are truly well received. This blog as you know by now, I’m sure, started as a way to put some memories together; memories which were a bit of a collective dust room, a sample of what many who were then children, like myself, lived through in leaving behind a lifetime and family, and coming –sometimes albeit reluctantly- to face a new life, a new world and a very uncertain future.

When you ask me whether the people and experiences I write about are real, the answer is a resounding… Yes! From Rosie, my befriended young lady friend from a very different world than the one from which I came, to el Tío Eusebio, my grandparents... friends from the neighborhood, to the ladies from yesterday’s piece… the factory workers who were almost an extended family… They were all real, flesh and blood people. Some were family, some were friends and some have been acquaintances met over roads traveled.

Remember “Pata’e Plancha”, the man who came to the rum factory door to get his daily fix? He was a very real person; a hard working, hard drinking man who came from a very low social strata and a very simple, good man. One factor does not preclude the other, or vice versa; some of the most selfish, unthinking and worst behaving people I have had the displeasure of meeting over the years have come from very rarified and, supposedly, well educated social circles.

A couple of days ago I was on the phone with a friend who lives in Spain. We were talking about the country and its very complex people make up. Although I have had the chance to spend sometime in Spain, it has been mostly in Madrid, the central meseta around this city, and the area around Barcelona. My friend lives in Vigo, on the North West coast of Galicia. He asked me if I knew the area and I answered: I have never personally been around there, but in my mind I know many of the nooks and crannies of Asturias, the principality just east of Galicia.

“How come you think you know these areas?” he asked, knowing I had never been up there. “Because” I answered him, “my grandfather came from Asturias, and he used to tell me many detailed stories of his little piece of Spain”. To the point that, without having physically visited, I could probable describe a good part of this area, including the culture… In a few of the earlier entries, Asturias has indeed been the focus of the notes.

I remember Cuba, as if it was only yesterday that we parted (wasn't it?) not 50 years ago. Of course, the brighter memories relate to Cienfuegos, my hometown, as well as Cruces, the little nearby town where my mother moved after re-marrying; a small country town where I lived for some years and where I left many friends and also where my radio related lifelong love affair began in earnest, when I was about 13 years old. There are many other places vividly remembered as well. My grandfather, who was my rearing father, saw to it that I became acquainted with my country of birth. For this, and many other loving reasons, I am indebted to him.

Those shared memories about séances and spiritual moments which to this day, from a logic perspective remain unexplained, are very real. It was a different world than the one in which we live today; many issues which were accepted as “normal”, are often shunned now. Mostly, I think, because we tend to be afraid of what we do not understand or cannot explain in regular terms; I did go to those séances and I did participate in them. It was part of our society and of our culture, and it wasn’t dangerous to me at any time.

Yet, those memories and the very personal moments and happenings I have experienced in this very esoteric area, in the intervening years , have helped me accept that we do not know everything that coexists with us on this, or one of several possible planes; and also, the fact that if we cannot explain something away in our human terms, does not make it any less possible. Or real.

Over the years I have been blessed in many ways. Traveling around the world due to my work, took me to many places that had been a dream of mine to visit. Many people whom I met, coming from myriads of walks of life, cultures and nations, strengthened my faith in the fact that man (and, yes, woman) is, in general terms, a good being. Also, in the fact (to me, anyway) that there is a guiding hand belonging to a higher entity; a hand attached (spiritually speaking) to a sentient being who guides us, nurtures us and helps us through those very difficult moments. If we, that is, allow Him to do so in faith.

So, to answer your notes and questions… yes, what you see in these entries is really a part of myself and my life, which I share with you willingly for maybe, my experience may help you in a difficult moment, or make your day a little better in some way. I hope you enjoy it in the same vein and also I hope that when you read something which may sound a little “strange” to you, you may be willing to accept it at face value and in the same good faith it was offered.  

Be Well … Be Back!!!

Final Notes:

• Pray for those who are fighting an illness which may take them away from their loved ones… Every request is heard, and counts!!
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