A life story

(#194)

From then on, individually or collectively, we gain the ability to anticipate. Now, it is this anticipation, materialized, for example, in the predictions of epidemiologists, that can allow for the necessary adaptations and adjustments.

We all have a story to share: our personal story. And every personal story of any human being deserves to be shared, not because each of us is a homemade variant of Homeric heroes, but because every story, of every human being, is valuable as a testimony of a time and a space, both geographical and communal.

Sharing our personal story is, therefore, sharing this time of ours, this spark of life that can always inspire and ignite someone's imagination, especially that of another generation.

So, I'm here to tell you that I was born in the early 1960s, one autumn morning, at home, delivered by an old and experienced midwife. I was the third and last of three children. "The bottom of the pot," as I was often called, or "you weren't supposed to come anymore." The truth is, I did come, at 4 a.m., and I'm still here sixty years later, strong and healthy, contemplating the world since 1960.

In the house where I lived until I was 30 years old, the day began not with the sunrise, but with the arrival of the two morning newspapers that slipped under the door, bringing in bold print the pulse of the world, from the wedding of the Swedish princess to the Biafran War, ending with the tide tables or the route of the Gulbenkian Traveling Libraries. These were scattered pieces of information that arrived, but they confirmed that the world existed.

My toys included a magnificent tricycle, several LEGO pieces, a toolbox with a hammer and pliers, nails, and pieces of wood that allowed me to interact with various materials in building small contraptions.

I watched with delight as my father disassembled the two ceiling fans at home every year in June, cleaning off the dust that had accumulated during the winter, anticipating the August heat. I myself enjoyed disassembling many other appliances that I could hardly put back together, leaving behind some parts and screws, which is why the machines stopped working.

I helped my older brothers build some contraptions, like transforming a wind-up alarm clock into a fascinating electrical device that lit lamps and switched on radios at the right time, in a desperate effort to wake one of my brothers who was a heavy sleeper.

It was the discovery of the why of things, of how materials interacted with each other. It was the basic laws of physics or electricity. It was the logical reason behind the phenomena we observed.

All this overlooking a backyard with lush wisteria, many snails and slugs, and a henhouse full of hens laying eggs at the end of the morning. I took my first steps in the field of Biology by observing the hens as they became "broody," that is, lethargic and lazy, spending their days on top of the eggs they laid, until the chicks hatched. I did my real doctorate in chicken incubation at the age of 7, with 2 incubators that one of my brothers brought home. The chicks were sold at my father's shop. I watched with infinite curiosity the turning of the eggs, day after day, until the first pecks of the chicks trying to get out of the egg, a miracle of life happening inside a wooden box. Then the chicks dried by the light of an electric lamp, motherless and children of an unknown rooster.

My father opened a major store in the 1950s that seemed to sell everything. It was a true "Chinese store," back when China was still far away. It was at Casa Tinoco, "the house of a thousand and one items," that I handled files and stamps from the age of 7 or 8, a veritable apprenticeship that lasted until the end of my adolescence.

In the vein of the Famous Five and The Secret Club, books by Enid Blyton, I was part of a real secret club with three of my seven cousins, with whom I spent memorable afternoons throughout the summer. From each of my cousins, without exception, I learned something fundamental to my life.

I witnessed the craze for high-fidelity sound systems that emerged in the 1950s. An uncle of mine received electronic parts ordered from the USA. He meticulously assembled these parts and created amplifiers and speaker cabinets that emitted crystal-clear sounds from vinyl records and a record player of a prestigious British brand. My father was part of a group of lower-middle-class people who shared vinyl records, patiently recorded on miles of magnetic tape. It was the fascination with electronic recording. From there, working in radio would be a small step.

It was through an advertising agency that broadcast on the radio station of the Atlantic Wings Club, on the island of Santa Maria. Making radio, combining music and words, are gestures of an intoxicating fascination.

The indelible mark of a teacher I had between the ages of 11 and 12, plus several shelves of science books in a public library, led me to choose Biology and Geology as the basis for a degree at the University of the Azores. While still a student, I worked closely in the laboratory with the Japanese beetle that infested Terceira Island in the Azores. As such, I discovered what biological control against this insect would entail, using fungi or nematodes.

Having become a qualified math and science teacher, I began teaching classes of 10-year-olds, a stage of life where everything is fascinating. With my pedagogy in a suitcase, I left my island with other dreams and landed at a school in Sintra.

I taught classes with a view of the mountains while learning the secrets of video production in Lisbon. Interspersed with my teaching career, I made several small corporate documentaries, prolonging the pleasure I had in my adolescence of filming and editing Super 8 film.

I am particularly proud of a documentary about the Cultural Heritage of the Assembly of the Republic and another about the importance of dental hygiene, produced for the DGS (Directorate-General of Health).

Antidepressants and the dedication of a brilliant doctor were invaluable in facing the ailments of forty years of life: the weariness and disillusionment that all teachers feel midway through their careers. But it was these ailments that led me to the doors of homeopathy, where I found a good solution for my health problems. From there, the in-depth study of Traditional Chinese Medicine was a natural step. For five long years, I immersed myself in an intense study of this ancient medicine, from the classrooms of the University of Traditional Chinese Medicine to the corners of my home, throughout nights and early mornings of reading and writing notes.

I have followed the struggles for the regulation of Non-Conventional Therapies since 2010. From various sectors of Portuguese society came a barrage of objections to these therapies, accused of lacking a "scientific basis." And it was this objection that led me to return to books and try to understand, after all, what Science was and what it is. I went through Chalmers, Kuhn, Popper, and Morin. Above all, I recalled the outburst of Pierre Laplace, a 19th-century mathematician, in response to Napoleon: "Science not only explains what happens, but it can foresee and predict it."

In fact, in 2016, I realized that defending this important sector of healthcare would require delving into the roots of scientific knowledge and understanding the meaning and scientific basis of Non-Conventional Therapies.

The Covid-19 pandemic emerged, and in March 2020 we were confined to a strange way of life that was not part of our imagination. I discovered, however, that Newton and Shakespeare had gone through the same experience, and from it were born important works: the Theory of Gravity and "Romeo and Juliet". In my confinement, however, only immense fatigue arose from many hours at the computer trying to reach my students.

What was most surprising for those who studied Biology was discovering that no one seemed to truly understand basic aspects of the proliferation of an infectious vector, such as a virus. Above all, lawyers and economists who dominate the world of politics and governance seem to believe they can subject the biological reality of a pandemic to the dictates of tacit politics.

Even in Europe, countries like the United Kingdom or Cartesian France, distracted by their arrogance, began by believing that Europeans were clean people and far removed from Asian epidemics.

In the US and Brazil, phenomena of profoundly distorted perception of what was happening around them were evident.

Faced with a pandemic of this magnitude, the primary challenge is for each citizen to be fully aware, on a daily basis, of the events that are unfolding. But simultaneously, it is fundamental that every inhabitant of planet Earth has some understanding of the mechanisms behind the phenomena occurring around us, whether physical, environmental, or social in nature.

For this to happen, we need to pay attention to the information that reaches us, like a newspaper that slips under our door every day. We need to process this information, like someone disassembling an electromechanical device with nuts and bolts, using a mental toolbox, and then mentally organizing this data into virtual folders and files.

This entire process is largely carried out by each of us, unconsciously or informally. Our professional activities may require a more formal or systematic approach, but this process is fundamental and is the essence of our lives as human beings.

For this process to unfold, good preparation provided by this age-old institution called school is essential, but it is also necessary for the whole of society to provide mechanisms and devices that allow for an understanding of the mechanisms underlying the various phenomena that occur around us. This applies to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, but it extends to many other dimensions of our experience as human beings.

And what do we do with this perception of facts and mechanisms? Here, Pierre Laplace reminds us that science gives us the ability to anticipate. And what do we do with this ability to anticipate?

The answer is simple: we adapt. Instead of Homo sapiens, we need to build Homo anticipating, that is, the human being capable of anticipating and, with this anticipation, preparing their adjustment in order to guarantee the basic aspects of our lives.

Over the last two decades, we have witnessed China's rise as a major economic and technological power. Why? How is it possible that a country considered poor and underdeveloped for much of the 20th century is now emerging, even risking surpassing powers like the USA?

This probably happens because China has, and always has had, a cultured elite, very attentive to its historical and cultural past and with an extraordinary capacity for... anticipation and adaptation.

The Covid-19 pandemic that struck humanity in 2020 dramatically demonstrates the importance of this process taking place, at least in the minds of most human beings. From there, individually or collectively, we gain the capacity for anticipation. Now, it is this anticipation, materialized, for example, in the predictions of epidemiologists , that can allow for the necessary adaptations and adjustments.

If this is true for managing the pandemic, it is equally, or even more, true for a good part of what happens in our daily lives.

Sintra, October 21, 2020

© Eduardo Rui Alves