By the year sixty-nine I was about to turn fifteen, I was already in high school and I was enthusiastic about the study of science. I really enjoyed the explanations of my chemistry and physics teachers because in each class they showed me new worlds unknown to me.
At that time, my main source of information was my high school classes and what I read in the few textbooks my parents could afford to buy me. In my house there were never any books other than school books and I didn't know anyone in my family who liked reading. My knowledge was quite precarious.
In those days one of my physics teacher's favorite subjects was the space race. From him I learned that the Russians had taken a slight lead by being the first to send a living being into space, the famous dog Laika.
But my professor was convinced that it would be the Americans who would reach the moon first. In every class he would take some time to explain how complicated it was to send a spacecraft into space. He tried to put into simple words a subject that was very complex for ignorant kids like us. He would talk about all the gravitational forces that had to be overcome and how tremendously difficult it was to achieve the necessary momentum to get beyond the earth's orbit.
I listened to him speak and my mind was filled with questions, I wondered if it was really possible for human beings to go that far. However, I firmly believed in what my professor was saying.
By the month of July of that year sixty-nine, television began to give a lot of space to the subject of the great feat that humanity would achieve. There were special programs on the subject. But the feat was not only that Apollo 11 was going to reach the moon, but also that it could be seen live on television. With each passing day the anticipation grew.
I don't remember exactly if we watched the event live at home or a few days later. But what I will never forget was the sentence my grandmother left that day, with great certainty she affirmed that it was a lie, that it was impossible that human beings could reach and walk on the moon. She was convinced that it was a trick of the television.
As I listened to her, I remembered my physics teacher's classes, but it was unthinkable that a young boy like me could challenge Grandma's opinion. Her opinion was simply considered holy word in the family.
Later on, I was able to understand more clearly that the weight of ignorance can be so great that it makes people place themselves outside reality. Perhaps it was because of this conviction that I dedicated my life to educating people.
Another big surprise happened to me when I was a man. I was in my mid-twenties when I found out that my parents were getting divorced. By that time I wasn't living with them. I had moved out of town and had a family of my own.
I often went to visit my parents on weekends and they often came to my house, especially after the birth of my first child. In none of these visits I could perceive any indication that would alert me to what was about to happen.
One day my mother informed me that she was going to separate from my father. They had reached an agreement in which he would leave the family home until they were able to sell it and make the respective partition of assets.
The way he told me this impressed me deeply. In his words there was total security and conviction. To top it off, she told me that for her this was a finished subject, that she would not continue talking about it. And so it was, I have never known what was the trigger that made her make that decision. The times I have tried to talk to her about it, my mother has managed to change the subject. My siblings who lived with them at the time tell me that my mother simply got tired...
After that event my mother practically became a different person. That woman who had spent more than twenty years dedicated to taking care of her home and children, suddenly began to make a new life for herself. From being a housewife, she became a skilled merchant, able to make a living for herself and my younger siblings by selling a variety of items, from prepared food to groceries of all kinds, cleaning supplies and clothing.
My mother's conversion was very inspiring for all of us. It showed us that people have no limits and that when they are determined to achieve something, they can do it.
I am publishing this post motivated by the initiative proposed by my friend @ericvancewalton, Memoir Monday, in its twenty-first week. For more information click on the link.
Thank you for your time.
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Logo creado por @themanualbot
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
