Civility

It is a little delirious to demand civilized behavior from a society that, with the help of the state, foments the creation of Rapid Response Brigades [to attack anyone who publicly protests or dissents]. Because of this, when I see the agitated state of people around me, I try to breathe deeply and tell myself, paraphrasing Ivan: They are not the enemy… nor am I.

We say this jokingly between us, and jokingly as well they told me this sad story the other day. I am one of those who maintains humor as a “maximum” remedy against what is, I have Faith in laughter to cleanse me of the bad feelings I get going out in the street, and to fight my daily grind.

The story is simple: it happened a few years ago when we still were enjoying the delirious interventions of the Comandante on the Roundtable TV show. But sometimes mysterious disappearances created conjectures among people (like now when he doesn’t update his blog for many days). During one such period, a friend of Julio (a professional dominoes player) died, a man named Fidel.

One of the players went to Julio’s house to give him the news, and as he lived on the third floor he shouted from the sidewalk:

- Julio! Did you know? Fidel died.

But the neighbor above Julio didn’t play dominoes and didn’t know “that” Fidel, so he thought it was the “other one.” He went straight to his room, grabbed his baseball bat, went to the house of the president of the CDR (Committee for the Defense of the Revolution) and split his head open.

Unfortunately I’ve been able to confirm that almost no one else has this dread that I have. Hopefully when that day comes that we are all waiting for more or less anxiously, with more or less Faith, with more or less apprehension, it won’t occur to any player to split anyone in the head.