DAY 6: The Power and Impact of Gratefulness
by Branly López, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
(written by Axel Coumans)
The former Age of Wonderland fellow Branly López (Guatemala) shared the power and impact of ‘gratefulness’, what it means in his life, and could mean in the lives of others. He finds that ‘gratefulness’ gives us the option to stand still and realize what we already have, instead of comparing ourselves with others and wanting more; as this dissatisfaction can also lead to more greed and fosters our consume oriented, capitalistic system.
J. and I climbed into a tree to spend a summers’ afternoon in the dark, damp forest shade, close to the lake at the end of the street where I grew up. We sat upon a branch that grew horizontally over the trail that passed around — note, not through — the forest. Never have I ever seen anyone except my friend in that small, seemingly insignificant, group of trees that offered the soil and the shade for the imagination of the young. I remember that particular day, and all those days alike.
“now go further in time, to when you were around 15 years old”
My friends and I have learnt how to drive motorcycles. One day we would drive to larger, cleaner lakes and riverbeds, grass plains where hardly no-one ever came. Where my friend would learn to compose a song, where we could speak freely, where we had nothing to do, where the…
“keep your eyes closed for a moment and remember who or what you could be grateful for, in that particular moment”
“My freedom and friends, the possibility to spend time for it’s own sake, and to live in a time and place that enabled me to do so”, I say while I open my eyes.
Smell carries memories
About one hour earlier I entered Natlab in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Natlab is a former Philips physical research facility and the cradle of the Compact Disc. I was kindly invited to join a Day of Learning, organized by Branly López, (also a fellow of the Age of Wonderland 2016 program — red.). As I arrived a group of familiar, and less familiar faces were sitting in a circle. No, I didn’t arrive late, but the learning had obviously already begun…
While entering the circle of chairs, a strong scent hits me. Smoldering eucalyptus leafs rest in a small bowl in the middle. The basement becomes silent, for a moment none speaks, none listens, as if we are solemnly discovering the scent. I share the sensation of remembering something, the image of a place, a face, or a word that I didn’t pronounce for years. Branly tells me that the eucalyptus tree is in the Mayan tradition known for carrying memories. Everything seems to fall into place today.
Future memories?
“now close your eyes again, and remember who or what you could be grateful for in the future”
Until now, the thought experiment has been a pleasant, and perhaps a bit familiar conversation. Yet this last question stirs up the conversation as he proposed a phenomenon unfamiliar to most of us: memories of the future. López explains how memory and gratefulness are connected, if not the same, from an etymological and an empirical point of view. It is one and the same sensation, an omnipresent sensation which, once cultivated, could be sensed at any given moment. Past, present and future are connected through this presence, which can be called upon at any instant.
López offers us the opportunity to ask questions. “Why do we need to learn from this?” In other words, what triggered López to teach us his take on gratefulness? He responds by remembering the moment that he returned to Guatemala after his first visit in the Netherlands, one year ago after his two-months residency at the Age of Wonderland 2016 program. He, as a thoughtful visitor, has been able to offer us a reflection in which he made us look at our city, our daily life and our habits through his eyes. López recalls the feeling that something was lacking in Eindhoven and maybe in the Dutch culture, and he had a long flight ahead of him to reflect on this sentiment.
Lack of gratefulness
So what is it, that a city like Eindhoven, where people are generally in good health and abundant of opportunities professionally and socially, lack? It must be gratefulness he concluded. When López speaks of gratefulness, it would be a mistake to assume that this word would have the same meaning as it does for me, as was pointed out before. When López speaks of gratefulness he does not mean the act of saying “thank you” to a person at a certain moment in time, or a thing that you are grateful for.
I did not yet seem to get what he meant by gratefulness. I did not yet understand how he verbalized a sentiment that seems to give him so much fulfilment. I am asking myself whether I don’t know the sentiment itself, and that the limits of the words that I use are indeed the limits of my scope on life, or perhaps I recognize the sentiment but I use a different word for it. Now, while writing this, days later, I suddenly seem to understand what he has said.
When López speaks of gratefulness he is referring to a certain underlying sensation, that makes you appreciate everything that occurs. To explain this, he uses three metaphors; the mountain, the ocean and your shadow. Gratefulness, he says, is like the mountain under the grass and the trees, or the ocean under the waves and the stormy weather. Gratefulness could be seen as a shadow, and it follows you where you go. Yet it is best described in his own words: “something will happen, it may be good, it may be bad. Yet something will happen.”
Words can’t explain
Frankly speaking, now that I am writing this, I feel that my words don’t do much justice to the fine discrepancy of our language barrier, and perhaps reality-barrier. Yet, deconstructing such a membrane has thrilled me for days now. Especially now that I have experienced how fragile the border between our bubbles is, and how it seems as if it somehow just wants to be poked, and burst into oblivion.
