Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro: 25oC, hottish and sunny.
It is Corpus Christi, a religious bank holiday that I do not know what it represents in the Roman Catholic religion as I am neither Catholic nor very religious.
Traditionally, the Brazilian population was Catholic, with the most prominent Catholic following out of Italy. I believe today that the Catholic following has decreased a little from eighty per cent of the population to approximately sixty-five per cent. Many people have migrated to evangelical and Protestant religions rather than Catholicism.
Protestants and Evangelism have become more and more popular, with people losing touch or not identifying anymore with the Catholic Church, partly because of outdated traditions and the numerous scandals from the church over the last couple of decades.
Faith is a big business and has become a lucrative one. Evangelical churches in Brazil are masters at packaging and selling it to the masses, particularly those in impoverished areas. These churches provide hope and guidance to people who may not find it elsewhere, either within their families or through the Catholic Church.
Another notable aspect of these churches is their growing influence in Brazilian politics. The last president of Brazil, Jair Messias Bolsonaro, is a member of an evangelical church. Additionally, many Brazilian congressmen and senators are also affiliated with these churches, having been elected by millions of evangelical followers.
This gives these churches’ high-profile pastors and preachers a significant amount of power, considering their captive audience of the ever-increasing evangelical population. It is worth noting that voting is mandatory in Brazil.
The rise of evangelism in Brazilian politics is phenomenal, with even a pastor from an unknown church being a serious presidential candidate. Nalva is evangelic, and I also have pupils who are evangelic. I am not very fond of this religion; the truth is that I am not very religious at all.
Religion was made by man, and many things that are from man are bad; human error is in everything, including religion. I am not saying that it is bad, but for me, until now, I have been unable to identify with any specific religion.
The human being has continually been searching for the meaning of life and his or her existence; if a person adopts a particular religion and is happy and comforted by his or her faith in that religion, then I am so glad for them and what that religion represents for them.
I have had many Jewish, Catholic, and spiritualist pupils, and all of them are looking for more or less the same answers. My mother is a spiritualist medium and, due to her work in faith, has travelled to many places and countries giving lectures on spiritualism.
She has always said that I have a certain level of spirituality and skills that I have never really developed.
However, what I have noticed with myself is that I am able to read and understand people extremely easily and quickly on a first meeting, with the ability to see or forecast certain future situations simplistically. Do I believe in this? I honestly do not know. The only thing I do know is that life is much more complex than we would like to think it is!
The question of whether we have freedom of choice or not remains unanswered. However, it seems like it is a combination of both. We have the freedom to make choices in life, but there is also an inevitable fate or destiny that presents us with opportunities to develop and grow. We can choose to take these opportunities or not.
Often, an opportunity appears before us, but we lack the skills or wisdom to take it. Therefore, our journey in life is a continuous process of learning and improvement.
We are born, and from that moment on, we embark on a journey of progress and self-discovery until we die. Our actions and decisions during this journey determine our growth or delay. It is something to reflect on.
The bank holiday was a lazy day. We thought about going to Urca, but when it was time to act, nobody wanted to go except me. Nalva cooked a late lunch, and Yasmin had a third birthday commemoration with a friend’s family. Yasmin is close to Iza and her family; she has been out with them on a couple of occasions.
They kindly invited Yasmin out for dinner to celebrate her birthday at a nice restaurant near where we live in the south zone of Rio. They had reserved a table for 7 pm, and she returned at 10, happy as hell. She said she had thoroughly enjoyed the night; who would not have? It was good for her to have so much attention and be out with people who genuinely liked her.
Her aunts, Nalva’s sister will be coming for more celebrations! Ridiculous!
In bed by 10.00 pm.
Thank you.
Thanks for reading my blog. Check out my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments.
Richard
