This will probably be the only post with no photo in this entire blog, I promise. However, I thought that it might be of interest for all those who, everyday, search in Google for Portuguese costumes, traditions, and "way", and end up lost in this little corner of the Equestrian Portuguese World, or my World, or... that.
This is an
article - "Portugal holds on to words few can grasp" published in the International Herald Tribune and written by Michael Kimmelman, starting with a description of the mythical, mystical, and mysterious poet that defines our country so very well, Fernando Pessoa. It ends with a description of the way of being of the Portuguese people and country, what defined us as we are today as a whole.
Now the big question is... are we supposed to "get rid of it" to pursue a better future? Will we be able to? Portugal is a country where, after all, you find everything (in a small scale, comparably to other countries), but still, you can find everything. Just ask all of us who at a certain point in their lives, spent some time abroad...
Some very memorable and truthful quotes from this article:
Eduardo Lourenço is perhaps Portugal's most distinguished literary critic. Pessoa is "an exception, being a great writer," he said the other afternoon. "But he had a way of being that is distinctly Portuguese." He paused to find the right words. "It has to do with everything and nothing — that we Portuguese can have everything, but still feel we have nothing."
Portugal, he explained, had discovered half the world by the 16th century but still felt itself a failure for having not discovered the rest. The national mind-set, Lourenço said, is "a combination of megalomania and humility."
