inspiration trips

El viajero

Madrid Airport, Spain. Terminal 1. International Departures.

I was going to Brazil to prepare the new collection. I wanted to study a type of shoe that the Kayapó Indians had invented for climbing trees to collect fruit. If I could manage to come to an agreement with them and create a line there, I could help them in their fight against the indiscriminate felling of trees that is devastating their livelihood… I had several weeks of expedition ahead of me in pretty uncomfortable conditions, but the vision of what I hoped to find there was heartening. I was killing time reading the paper when a man sitting on my left spoke to me:

• “Are you in a hurry to get away?”
• “Why do you ask?”
• “Because there’s no reason whatsoever for you to go.”

What kind of madman was saying these things? I sat there speechless, looking at him and I instinctively put my hand on my wallet (modern man’s defence mechanisms are interesting, but I didn’t think of this until much later). While I gathered up my things to move somewhere else, he continued talking:

“I know you’re going a long way away in search of something you believe is valuable. I’m taking the liberty of telling you that your journey will be futile. They don’t need you.”

I had to sit down again. He could have guessed my flight destination from a myriad of details but… how did he know about the Kayapó? Curiosity not only killed the cat: it got to me too. I had an hour and a half ahead of me. I decided to listen.

“Well done. Humility is the privilege of the great. I know what you’re looking for.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“Exactly the same as me: to be happy.”
“How very original.”
“People like you think they are good because they respect other people, plants, animals… without understanding that they’re just simple works of nature. That’s all.”

At that point, a woman wearing a fox that was virtually alive around her neck got up clicking her tongue to make very clear her disapproval of the conversation. This action immediately sparked off a current of empathy between the man and me. He smiled and said that, for her, life was like a burden to be borne, increasingly heavy and always growing bigger from life’s misfortunes. That she didn’t know that life could be a long and rewarding ramble.

“I’ll explain something about happiness to you: every person has a different capacity to understand it. Many people define it as the possession of things which, in themselves, cannot give lasting happiness.”
“Sometimes it’s very difficult to distinguish what’s important from what isn’t,” I answered.
“You are concerned about the happiness and freedom of other people. But you need to look out for your own. It’s no use advising other people to make an effort to solve their problems if we don’t know how to control our own.”
“How can you be so sure of what I feel?”
“Because I know that’s how you feel. We all want world peace, but it won’t happen until there is peace in our own minds. Just look at what’s going on around us. Can you send troops to stop a war? No, it’s impossible to impose peace with arms. Only by discovering the inner peace in our own minds and helping others to do the same can we achieve it.”
“It’s impossible to keep cool-headed these days; the world doesn’t give you any options.”
“There is no more suffering in the world today than before, so the cause of unhappiness is not development. If your mind was working properly, you’d be happy despite external circumstances.”

They announced his flight. He was going to Japan.

“Listen, look and think. Like you did here with me. There are only three classes of wisdom for Man and they arise from those three actions. Don’t ever forget it; it will be very useful to you on your travels.”

And he left, without my daring to say anything to him. Nor was there any need. I was certain that he already knew I was not going to take that plane.

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