“Semanalmente Aura Miguel, na Rádio Renascença, entrevista pessoas muito variadas, umas famosas, outras nem tanto, mas todas elas com um percurso humano que vale a pena conhecer de perto. Ou seja, pessoas vivas, com uma saudável inquietação humana - por oposição a uma espécie de anestesia que cresce à nossa volta. Neste livro selecionámos algumas histórias pessoais, de personalidade públicas, que ajudam a pensar no essencial da vida e no que vale realmente a pena.”
(Aura Miguel Weekly, on Radio Renascença [the Portuguese Catholic Radio Station], interviews different people, some famous, others not so much, but all of them with an individual pathway that is worth knowing closely. That is, living people with a healthy human uneasiness - as opposed to a kind of anesthesia that grows around us. In this book we have selected some personal stories of public personalities that help us think about the essentials of life and what really matters.)
In “Aura Miguel Convida” by Aura Miguel
If Aura Miguel had interviewed me…
What do we think is wrong with people and our society today?
1. Life has become harder in years as the tech developing. Not sure that life has become harder. Nobody comes in from working down the mines any more, nobody has to wash by hand then put it through the mangle. People can't even be arsed to walk to the local takeaway or even go shopping. There is more free time now. Each generation had its own worries - nuclear war, real war. All washing done manually, no machine getting on with it while you caught your breath.
Are people today really that stressed and overworked or is it the manner in which they choose to spend their time that is wearing them out?);
2. People don't have enough free time;
3. The race between people increased logarithmic since 2000s;
4. Social media made people see lives of each other and made them race to each other;
5. Number of nonsense sad events increased including kidnapping, child abuse, killings, cross wars, terrorism, rapes, and illnesses. We are reading sad news every day and we don't have hopes for future;
6. The food we eat isn't healthy as before it feels like we eat we get energy but foods without benefits and quality;
There is a loop: make people sick by foods take their money wen selling foods-> make them sick-> take their money in hospitals to cure= real slavery millions of people working for nothing and becoming sick;
7. The people from the same nation race each other in life while the countries in world race each other. And result: unhappy tired, dirty world. Our race to each other tiring us and polluting the earth. We are bringing our own end.
Not being facetious but, like getting off Facebook etc. I feel loads better for reading *a lot* less newspaper articles. The negative, self-flagellating, identity, ethnicity, gender based spin put on virtually everything is truly jading and can begin to appear as if represents reality, it can even leave you feeling rather misanthropic and hopeless - speaking as someone who was brought up a catholic and managing mostly in adulthood to shake off the abstract guilt attached to every waking thought - I spotted the familiar signs and have adjusted my reading habits accordingly! A little cynicism is of course healthy - but my goodness - too much is exhausting.
Do you think having more jobs to make ends meet is the solution for being happier?
I think it's a combination of jobs that demand ever more of us and a desperate urge to fill what moments we have left with something meaningful. Unfortunately, that 'something meaningful' is generally dictated by various strands of the media. My wife and daughters were away this weekend so I had the house to myself. What did I do? I tidied, I did the washing, I listened to some music. All the time I was feeling that I could be doing something more meaningful. When I was younger it wouldn't have bothered me, I would have had a good time. I think that the 'burnout' stems from the decision to make Sunday like any other day of the week, robbing us of our one proper day of rest. Yes, it was incredibly boring, but I think its removal has had a huge effect on our mental and physical health.
What could be more meaningful than the necessary tasks on which you spent your day?
Zen saying: How wonderful, How marvellous! I chop wood, I carry water! All those tasks I outlined were meaningful in their own way, but modern society seems to be pushing us to do more or experience more. Even mindfulness and relaxation is stressful these days! I can't save up all my shopping chores until Sunday. I either get them done during the week or, often, find they weren't really necessary in the first place. Sunday is for long walks, lunch with friends, reading, swimming, or just lying around doing nothing.
Do you think “burnout” in the Winter is a serious issue?
I think I've long had an element of "burnout" in Winter, once the planet rotates away from the Summer solstice, there can come a kind of tiny ache to the approaching cold, a fatigue, the short nights of not having enough daylight somehow literally spotlighting it, a lack of contrast as rest. The cure-all for me was always my mountain bike (and now my electrical scooter, what we call here a “trotinete”; probably the most well-spent 380 euros of my life). Actually feeling the elements, the metabolism exercised with fresh air, damp or dry air, cool or warm breeze, or slashing cold rain and invisible hand brake or push wind; rain, hail, snow or shine made no difference during the past Winter, all were the endless reboot of change. Somehow it was like reacquiring the childhood wonder and proximity to the natural world, the pace and haste was taken off life, not using the car and the Tube, a kind of gift of modesty and patience to the soul. There was a simple joy in noticing the setting and wheeling (or not wheeling in the case of the scooter) beneath the trees as they constantly changed with the passing wheel of season, from bright green in spring, to dark, tired green in August, to brown and gold crinkle and acorn pop below the fat tires of the broad bike wheel. Longer journeys to work out on the cycle lane that half looped the town to miss the car fume, nobody ever there, just the wildlife in the trees, a horse or two in a field. If I could use the bike or the scooter to go to work from my house, Ipd do it. I might even see a fox or badger, a red kite (yesterday I saw an eagle up in the sky!). Why had all those years before not witnessed this proximity to nature? Reminiscent of primary school when Mrs. Troina took us out to collect fallen leaves or flowers, or a cracked spring eggshell a heartbreaking pepper dash of pristine earth colours on blue, to make a collage with glue?
Now I see more people using the scooter and the bike here, but with a less rural setting in the heart of Lisbon. There are still many trees and birds and garden strips along the roads. But the rural pace of a small city it isn't quite the same. That’s why I live in the sticks…
Do you yearn for Autum? Have you some kind of fatigue or lack of freshness?
Fatigue? Lack of freshness? Some might never have thought about mid-year burnout, yet the thought is yes. Do other people always look forward to autumn like people sometimes do in China? No idea. For me I could have Summer all Year Long. A short season of change? Nope! Then Christmas, New Year, and with the climate emergency, an early spring? Nope! I hate it! Give me Summer all the time!
But the problem is not just the weather. The problem is work, even if you have a full time 9-5 job which doesn't demand you be available 24/7 (which mine does). Fortunately I no longer have the endless grind of commutes; but I still have the pointless forms, meetings (in Portugal we have something which I call “reunite aguda” – acute meetinghood I think I could translate as such) and the same tasks repeated endlessly; that’s what gets me down. We need a 4 day working week as soon as possible.
Do you watch the news on TV?
Nope. Brexit, Boris, Trump, Iran, Putin...Switch off the news! Switching off social media would probably help more. Especially that poisonous app Twitter. I haven't had a TV for years (my 4-year kid monopolizes the living room TV to watch cartoons) and I never listen to news broadcasts. I read some newspapers online, and I'm selective about what I read. What on earth is the point of being battered with constant harangue and drivel day after day! There is a hell of a lot of blame going on online media today: complaining, avoiding responsibility, fear of change, fear of choice. Didn't realise there were so many people apparently meandering like baffled cattle through their lives. It isn't a great look you know, coming across so meek. Any sympathy starts to run out when you read again about someone blaming this or that, when the actual problem is that people seem to be scared to change or to make a decisive choice. It's like what the some people thought about freedom, that people are actually scared of it and so invent all these other things to divert them away from making a choice. It is far easier to blame something or someone else, after all. I say again, playing the victims really doesn't look too good, especially when held in comparison to what other people on this planet are actually going through in their day-to-day lives.
What’s your advice for living a better life and avoid bummer days?
Sleep better/Eat Better, get fresh air and exercise...put some barriers up between work and personal life and don't kill yourself with commitments...find something you're passionate about and make time to do it...bloody well enjoy your life now (not at some ill-defined point in the future) otherwise what's the point of anything? It also doesn't help that so many younger people are obsessed with a "perfect" lifestyle. The world simply looks like shit - that used to be easily ignored but now it isn't. The future does not look brighter. Everyone has been hanging on for some resolution to the chaos - whether it’s Brexit, Trump or climate change normal transmission has not been resumed, the bad guys have not received their comeuppance, direction has not been changed. I tend to feel more knackered in the winter if it's any consolation. Bad weather and short days are a bad combination for me as I said previously. Doing nothing on a basis sufficiently regular to give respite enough to recharge isn't nearly as easy as it sounds. There is discipline in doing nothing. One of the problems is that once you're recharged, you enter the fray again because you feel up to it, when you really should be lingering and let the whole things drift apart. Western people are a bunch of uptight, busybody arseholes in the process of ruining a great historic opportunity to make society and life ideal by being on all the time. The power and effect of autosuggestion is vastly underestimated even though it is running most lives.
Do we believe we’re coming to a sort of standstill society-wise?
According to astrology, there's worse to come. 13th January, 2020. All available on Google!
I don't think there really is any set solution. I started biking because I love exercise and I started to get a bit obsessive about it. I also find when I read and write I forget all my worries. For others it might be going to see Football. As I get older I find I get better at compartmentalizing and putting things into context. It probably all depends on your personality, people know themselves. The world is already hugely interconnected on every level and this inter connectivity will continue to increase whether we like it or not. The question is, how do we manage it? The main problems we face as a species can only be solved on a global level. There is no alternative. Capitalism and (over) consumption is at the root of our problems. We need to find a better way of living, and we won't do that through isolationism. I don't think life on farms and factories decades ago was any easier. That was a struggle just to survive, just to put food on table, not to mention feed all the kids you had because you didn't have birth control. But we are coming out of a sort of 'honeymoon' post-War period where things were relatively easier (than previous generations) and seemed to be getting better. We are tired now because those things didn't really come true. Instead we were pushed into a never ending race to do more, be more, achieve more, etc. but aren't rewarded with community or a sense of security and well-being that was promised. Instead we're in a race - but with whom or what? The one percent, austerity, computers, the coming AI that will cause even more job losses. People don't have a sense of purpose. What are we all doing? Marketing more things that are causing the planet's environment to collapse, maybe doing PR for some silly person that screams at other people on TV, or perhaps working in banking "creating value" out of thin air that makes some people richer and leaves the rest poorer.
Why do you think we’re permanently tired?
We are tired because we are doing busy work for decades in a race to more, more, more... achieve, consume and capture it all on Instagram and Facebook. It has nothing to do with the seasons. Simple solution: bike (or “e-scoot”) to work. Avoid the commute, declutter your mind, and get fit.
How do you see our work ecosystem of today?
I don’t think that the increasingly sharp-elbowed workplace helps. For whatever reason, maybe the way I was brought up, I’ve never had an interest in taking part in office politics as I have a thing about snakes. My career suffered but I retained my sanity whilst I observed the rats in the sack. Self-worth is essential, after all, and it’s not based on career progression, but rather, on the basis that you can look yourself in the mirror and never have to say you were only ‘following orders.’ My goal was to hang on in there, and be able to sleep at night with a clear conscience. I have neither the inclination nor the lack of integrity to join in with it. But the bullshit it brings with it is tiring in the extreme...
Do you think our parents had it “easier” than us?
It’s very hard to objectively compare our lot with another generation as an individual, and I am sure there have been times when it’s just as hard for other generations, but certainly as an old got myself it does feel like there is a lot of pressure to perform, in employment and life, both from bosses and peers, with loads from new technology such as online social media which we have not yet balanced up. Case in point, I am writing this on my lunch, 30mins spent of which 1/2 is spent at my desk at work catching up on the news, on top of eating my lunch in the sunshine. Either way, while everyone is tired at some point, it seems mad the number of people including myself who appear to be on the cusp of fatigue at all times. I get a sense that a lot of us don't feel as valued as we feel we should be. There seems to be an almost constant level of background unhappiness around, hence life by smartphone, always busy (which often translates into only being available if you're giving me something). Entitlement is a real factor, trying to life up to ideals, often from others. So many ego fuelling behaviours which drain away emotional energy most of the time. And avoid bread at all costs; it can make you sleepy. Boredom? Doing repetitive tasks day in day out in a dead environment with those horrible lights and the windows shut is soul destroying.
Do you think working at home is the solution?
I don't understand why so many of us need to waste so much time and energy, not to mention fossil fuels, commuting to work. I could easily do 90% of my IT job from home. Thank God I work at a company which promotes remote work. The government should be giving tax breaks to companies who encourage their employees to work from home. Why don’t they? Lack of trust. Insurance requirements. Commuting should be banned, and everyone live close to their workplace so they can walk to work. Cities need planning this way with trees and attractive green places that are large.
Have you got a final piece of wisdom for us?
I sure do. Keep calm and carry on. The entire world is a much more stressful place than it used to be. There are twice as many people on the planet as there were 50 years ago. Traffic is horrendous in all of the developed countries. Put too many rats in a cage and they start to bite each other. Computers were going to make our lives so much easier, right? Whatever are we going to do with all the free time is a frequently asked question. We are indeed all going to die, but the world is going to be just fine.
