We live together not to be together, but to do something together

Translated from the original Spanish article.

I believe that everything that moves people is about stories, feelings, narrative.

I want to point to that narrative, the “Spain doesn’t believe in Spain” one (María Griñón, 38 - The New York Times), and to the fact that every now and then we need a fresh look from outside to remind us that we’re doing well.

We are doing well. Not the gentlemen of soccer, but you and I.

We are definitely a country with plenty of room for improvement, but, regardless of ideologies and political views, the one objective fact is that we are a people who share circumstances and a destiny, for better and for worse.

“I am I and my circumstance, and if I do not save it, I do not save myself.”

Here, in this place called Spain, I know extraordinary people; in fact, each with their virtues and their flaws, as a rule I come away with the impression of being surrounded by talent. In the broadest sense of the word.

I have no doubt you will recognize the same thing from your own experience.

Together we are all pulling this cart; we just need to acknowledge it to one another a little more. To carry the conversation with less friction, built on common ground, with the offer of a dialogue that doesn’t forget we are, and must be, on the same team. Because the world is big and history is vast, and sometimes we lose sight of the fact that, in this place, a privileged space is reserved for us to build our lives and our shared story.

The rift that Spanish identity entails is evident and deep, forged by misfortune and centuries of insistence. And perhaps we will not live to see it disappear.

But perhaps one day we will remember that we live together not to be together, but to do something together. And then that shared purpose may free us from the chains we carry.