Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro: 30 °C, hot, sunny, and a little overcast.
Friday was a day of hard work and discipline. The hard workout required discipline, and giving at least eight classes on a Friday also needed a certain amount of strength and stamina.
Rio de Janeiro is experiencing another heatwave right now; it is literally 30 degreesall the time. Even at midnight or at 1 a.m., it is hot. I have got two air conditioners, one in my bedroom and the other in the living room.
When Yasmin is not with me, I keep the air conditioner in my bedroom turned on and the door closed, as it is my bedroom, my study, my office and, of course, my playroom. However, if Yasmin is with me, I turn the living room air conditioner on to try to keep the whole flat cool, including her bedroom.
Classes are until 4 pm on a Friday! All the classes were good and productive. Yasmin arrived shortly after the last class with a face that was dragging on the floor. I asked her what the problem was, and she told me she was upset with her mother, who was criticising her too much.
Her mother is not a bad person; however, she can be highly critical of other people and has this innate characteristic of always trying to be right, a know-it-all that almost borders on being obsessive.
Living in Brazil, I see this all the time: the person must be right; being right is more important than anything else. Even if they are wrong, they are still right. It is more important to incriminate somebody else, preserve your integrity, and be right than to resolve the problem at hand.
Nowadays, we see a lot of twisting and distorting the truth to make life easier for that person or those people. People don’t want to hear, see, or even understand the truth. People want to see and listen to what is convenient for them and their beliefs or ideology.
Life is not as easy as that.
We cannot just ignore, forget, or hide what is wrong because it is more convenient to do so. Or is it RIGHT or WRONG? Sometimes there can be grey patches in the middle, but we must set limits on what is right or wrong, or even what is basically obvious, using good common sense and what is acceptable.
We see this every day in Brazilian politics; the guy is corrupt, he has been caught red-handed, the authorities have all the evidence that proves the accusations and yet the son of a bitch still denies everything. I don’t know if it is the same in other countries, but here in Brazil, it is endemic.
Returning to Yasmin, I talked to her and told her that maybe her mother will change one day, but until then, she has to understand that her mother is like that, and if she knows that her mother is like that, she will accept it, so that she doesn’t get upset in the future like she is now. Why voluntarily put herself in so much stress?
If you are aware of someone or something’s characteristics or behaviours, it should not come as a surprise.
So, there is no need to worry about any suffering. By acknowledging the reality of the situation and not anticipating a different outcome, you are saving yourself from unnecessary suffering, which nobody wants.
Yasmin seemed to understand what I was trying to say, and she seemed better after that. Later, I played chess, and she beat me again.
In bed by 9:30 p.m.
Thanks again.
Thanks for reading my blog. Check out my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments.
Richard
