Fe Nuñez Unlimited

Other than reading “One Hundred Years of Solitude” (a required one at that in Eng 1 when I was in college), watching the movie “Love in the Time of Cholera”, and knowing the fact that he is a Nobel Prize winner, I don’t know much about Gabriel García Márquez.

I was, however, reminded of my mantra, “Simple pleasures are the essence of life” by Epicurus and was profoundly touched when I read his farewell letter… and would like to share it with you:

“You will be called upon to account for all the permitted pleasures in life you did not enjoy while on earth.” — the Koran

Nobel-prize winning Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez retired from public life last November due to worsening cancer of the lymph nodes. He has sent this farewell letter to his friends, which has been translated, posted on the Internet, and sent by Jeff Hutner:

~*~*~*~

If for an instant God were to forget that I am rag doll and gifted me with a piece of life, possibly I wouldn’t say all that I think, but rather I would think of all that I say. I would value things, not for their worth but for what they mean. I would sleep little, dream more, understanding that for each minute we close our eyes we lose sixty seconds of light.

I would walk when others hold back, I would wake when others sleep. I would listen when others talk, and how I would enjoy a good chocolate ice cream! If God were to give me a piece of life, I would dress simply, throw myself face first into the sun, baring not only my body but also my soul. My God, if I had a heart, I would write my hate on ice, and wait for the sun to show. Over the stars I would paint with a Van Gogh dream a Benedetti poem, and a Serrat song would be the serenade I’d offer to the moon. With my tears I would water roses, to feel the pain of their thorns, and the red kiss of their petals…

My god, if I had a piece of life… I wouldn’t let a single day pass without telling the people I love that I love them. I would convince each woman and each man that they are my favorites, and I would live in love with love. I would show men how very wrong they are to think that they cease to be in love when they grow old, not knowing that they grow old when they cease to be in love! To a child I shall give wings, but I shall let him learn to fly on his own. I would teach the old that death does not come with old age, but with forgetting. So much have I learned from you, oh men…

I have learned that everyone wants to live on the peak of the mountain, without knowing that real happiness is in how it is scaled. I have learned that when a newborn child squeezes for the first time with his tiny fist his father’s finger, he has him trapped forever. I have learned that a man has the right to look down on another only when he has to help the other get to his feet. From you I have learned so many things, but in truth they won’t be of much use, for when I keep them within this suitcase, unhappily shall I be dying.

~*~*~*~

“Life can’t give me joy and peace; it’s up to me to will it. Life just gives me time and space; it’s up to me to fill it.” — William James, psychologist

I do not wish to die unhappily like him though. I don’t like regrets. I intend to seize the day and be happy as much as I can.

Choose to be happy. Life is really too short after all.