Good evening, my dear Hiver friends!
Here is my #weekend-engagement post.
Two weekends ago, I travelled to Lisbon for the launch of two titles by a writer and poet friend of mine.
When we say that in life, things aren't just superficial and aren't just about what happens, or whether or not they are realised, we couldn't be more right.
Let me tell you a little about the writer and his work.
If you want to know more about Julião Bernardes (pseudonym) you can find it in this link.
And it turns out that this pseudonym belongs to a totally unusual human being. Colonel João Repolho was a military officer by training and profession, and I had the pleasure of meeting him at a civilian shooting range.
And you wonder how that happens... Simple. As a member of the FPT (Portuguese Shooting Federation), mainly practising air pistol at 10 metres (one of the few Olympic disciplines that still exists), I met the Colonel on one of my twice-weekly training sessions.
He was immediately willing to help me improve my aiming technique, as well as my breathing, posture and shoulder placement.
That year, 2002, I was far from thinking that this affable but somewhat rigid person (a trait that is all too desirable in a military career) would turn out to be a man of many facets. One of them was poetry and prose.
He is sensitive and curious about his surroundings and attentive to the questions that life throws at him. He never leaves anyone indifferent and has the patience of a listener, the like of which is rarely found today. We could say that this characteristic of being a good listener is an endangered quality, don't you think?
The ceremony took place in a building that also houses a foundation closely linked to an extremely important political event in Portuguese society - the 25 April Association. As you might expect, when I entered the room for the presentation, the whole place was decorated with posters from the various years of the celebration of the date, as well as with books of a political nature and markedly left-wing influence.
My friend is more than just an outspoken political figure. He knows that I love him not for his political ideas, but for his personality and strong character. With the living being next to him, he demonstrates a concern that is not at all fashionable, and that does not leave anyone indifferent who observes and notices this same attitude.
In one of the titles presented by the author, "Every face a look", Julião talks about the daily incursion of a character who takes the train, curiously at a station very close to the one I use when travelling to Lisbon, and the one I used that same day... The curiosity described by the author in a woman's face that meets his gaze arouses in me a feeling of wanting to know more!
In the end, when I buy a book, I'm also buying the time I'll spend reading it. It's more than just a commercial exchange. It's a relationship that is established between the "me" of now and the "me" of tomorrow, in which I commit to being open to drinking from the wisdom printed on paper...
It's certainly a quality I don't have, written creativity, let alone the discipline to organise ideas. But there's always a lot to learn when you let yourself be carried away by the symbols inscribed reliogically on these little pearls.
I hope that I was able to convey the pride and luck that I had and still have in meeting such a human being, as well as from that day now possessing two of his literary works that have become unique in this world, through the imposition of calligraphy done in loco in a autograph way.
Here is the link if you want to find out more about other titles from the author.
Thank you for your time!
Bem Hajam 🍀
Photographic edition with PhotoScape X
