Drifting in the Space of Ramblings

Ramblings About Consequences

What goes around comes around!

All our choices affect other people's lives like the ripples from a stone thrown into a lake. These ripples reverberate infinitely throughout our existence.

I remember when, at my grandparents' house, I would wave a bamboo stick to try to attract bats. I wanted to knock one down to prove I could. I must have been about eleven years old. I hit one squarely, and it spun through the air and fell in front of me. The bat was trembling, injured. I got scared and called my grandfather. He made me understand that I had hurt that animal, which was weaker than me, and that it was now my responsibility. I had to pick it up and hang it on a sapodilla tree that was in his house. This tree was one of the reasons there were so many bats around. They loved this fruit.

For about three days, the bat stayed there hanging, unable to return to its roost. It fed on the fruits with difficulty, and I would check on it every couple of hours. When I woke up on the fourth day, it was no longer there, and I missed it. I had grown attached to it. I never waved a bamboo stick to hit bats again.

"You are responsible for what you tame."

A famous quote by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

It explains a lot about consequences. Especially when our actions affect others, which is to say, most of them.

There is no scene sadder to me than remembering the Fox, played by Gene Wilder, in the wheat field with a distant look, waiting for the Little Prince. To me, it is the most concrete image of sadness.

I never wanted to hurt anyone, but in life, this is inevitable.

Many times, I avoided forming emotional bonds with people for fear of what I might do to them. I preferred to hurt myself. To isolate myself. To distance myself.

Many times, when I decided to reconnect and get closer, it was the other person who hurt me... And this is the story of human existence.

I believe that when we make a decision, we must be prepared for the consequences it will bring. I am dying in space, but the decision to become an astronaut was mine. Only mine. I will not complain about the consequences this has caused, even if it takes my life. When a person drinks, they should not complain when their liver starts to fail; that would be a foolish attitude.

There is nothing worse than smokers complaining about lung cancer!

BE CONSISTENT UNTIL THE END!

I try to be consistent until the end.

Complaining about the consequences gets you nowhere. When it is possible to fix something that went wrong, then fix it! Don't blame anyone else.

Forgive me for dying in space, whoever might suffer from this.

Just keep in mind that I never regretted hitting a bat with a bamboo stick. I would have regretted leaving it there on the cold ground to die alone.