Hay quienes nunca son engañados, astutos siempre alerta, siempre tienen la respuesta correcta en la punta de la lengua, cuando alguien trata de humillarles o de aprovecharse de ellos.
¿Qué significa estar preparado para responder? Tendría unos veinte años, cuando fui con un amigo a una tienda de electrodomésticos de Logroño a comprar una bombilla de luz negra, de esas que se usaban en las discotecas, que quería probar para una escultura. Pregunté a la señora que atendía si tenían esas bombillas y ella respondió: “Ay, que esas son muy caras!” dando a entender que no tendríamos dinero suficiente para pagarlas. Yo me quedé en silencio: pensé que quizá, en efecto, fueran tan caras que yo no podría comprarlas. Mi amigo se adelantó y preguntó: “¿y entonces es que no tienen muchas?”, y tras una pausa “porque nosotros necesitamos doscientas, para una discoteca”. Me dejó perplejo. He pensado muchas veces en ese episodio en el que yo me sentí tan torpe en comparación. Yo era muy inocente y, a la vez, tenía el convencimiento de que entendía las situaciones más complejas, pero quizá con cierto retraso, solo tras pasar unas horas de insomnio, como en la actualidad. Es importante entender la lógica de las situaciones en las que te encuentras, y no importa si tardas un poco. De hecho, los buenos siempre tardan un poco, porque el responder inmediatamente a la mínima posibilidad de humillación, no solo supone la obligación de estar siempre pensando que te van a engañar -requiere esa actitud, pensar que todo el mundo es canalla y hay que aplastarlos antes de que te aplasten a ti- sino que, además, impide todas las lecciones de humanidad que proporciona el sufrir regularmente algunas humillaciones.
Bienaventurados los lentos.
The slowest of the fastest
There are those who are never fooled, who are always alert and astute, who always have the right answer on the tip of their tongue when someone tries to humiliate or take advantage of them.
What does it mean to be prepared to respond? One day, when I was about twenty, I went with a friend to an electrical appliance shop in Logroño to buy a black light bulb, the kind used in nightclubs, which I wanted to try out for a sculpture. I asked the lady who was serving us if they had those bulbs and she replied, ‘Oh, those are very expensive!’ implying that we wouldn’t have enough money to pay for them. I remained silent: I thought that perhaps they were indeed so expensive that I couldn’t afford them. My friend stepped forward and asked, ‘So you don’t have many?’ and after a pause, ‘because we need two hundred for a nightclub.’ I was perplexed. I have thought many times about that episode in which I felt so clumsy in comparison. I was very innocent and, at the same time, I was convinced that I understood the most complex situations, but perhaps with a certain delay, only after spending a few hours of insomnia, as I do now. It is important to understand the logic of the situations you find yourself in, and it does not matter if it takes a while. In fact, good people always take a little time, because responding immediately to the slightest possibility of humiliation not only means always thinking that you are going to be deceived – it requires that attitude, thinking that everyone is a scoundrel and you have to crush them before they crush you – but it also prevents you from learning all the lessons in humanity that come from regularly suffering some humiliation.
Blessed are those who are slow.