In the long journey through Europe that I have just concluded, I had the opportunity to reflect on the friendships that are sown in the various stages of life and that at a certain point are reaped.
I confess that I am not a fan of conventional tourism, such as traveling to a place – alone or in guided groups – to see monuments or natural beauty. I prefer a thousand times personal visits, that is, going to a place – no matter if it is touristy or not – to meet friends, talk to them, remember anecdotes, sorrows and joys, eat and drink together and in the meantime get them out of their harmful routine, get to know each other more deeply. Of course, I don’t do it to save money – which by the way happens most of the time when hotels are avoided – but to give meaning to that “idleness” (the opposite of the “business”).
I recognize that, in the many activities of my long life, I have sown and cultivated friendships that date back to my adolescence, passing through the years of study, then through volunteer work and technical cooperation, academic service at the University of La Paz, spiritual service in the Bolivian Church, technical and professional service in the State – also with political positions – and in scientific research. Not to mention the family, extended by the vicissitudes of life.
We’ve all had these kinds of experiences, but, in practice, we tend to selectively cultivate certain friendships, for reasons of closeness, communication, or interest. For my part, I have strived to maintain ties with many of the wonderful people God has placed in my path, in different countries around the world and at different ages of my life, even if it was a Christmas or birthday memory. In particular, I have practiced biblical hospitality the times one of them has arrived in Bolivia, which implies making myself available to the visitor so that his stay is pleasant and my adopted country is appreciated to the fullest.
It certainly helped me a lot to have something to share, such as my opinion columns or my books on different topics. Likewise, I was educated in these relationships by the hospitality and friendship I received from people I barely know, friends of friends.
I have also experienced a hospitality “of the heart”, which consists in constantly keeping alive in my memory people whom I will never embrace again, because they preceded me in the sleep of death. In particular, in these days I remembered the university professor who most influenced my scientific vocation and who was my thesis supervisor, through an unexpected experience almost at the end of my trip.
In fact, the school where the son of a grandson studies, the “Liceo Scientifico Bruno Touschek” in Grottaferrata, is named after my thesis supervisor. Talking to my nephew, I shared with him the affection I felt for that illustrious physicist, who died in 1978, and I discovered that he and his companions knew little or nothing about the life and work of this giant of physics.
In short, the physics teacher invited me to give a lecture the day before I returned to Bolivia to share my memories and some anecdotes from 55 years ago. I gladly accepted, as a way to give back to my teacher a little of what he continues to give me. In the absence of my library, I asked a classmate, an eminent university professor, to enrich my memories with other originals of his. The result was another experience of sincere hospitality.
In short, throughout your life you sow friendships and gather friends who, even if with the passage of time they are no longer physically the same as before, still retain much of what once made you love them.