Let’s Remember Ourselves, As We Looked At Ourselves

At every stage of our journey, we ignore a possible infinity which is nothing but that property our memories have of being able to combine with each other.

The mountain running competition from Slănic Moldova has ended. Many of the runners from Iaşi gathered for the already traditional party at the end of the day. The sun had set a long time ago, but I still wanted that sunny look from the competition, to be present again in the most thrilling atmosphere. And what applause ! And what cries of delight crowded in my mind, like some rays of sunshine poured inside a heart that still beats with hope, with nostalgia, with its soul in its mouth. The first word that animates me, here it is: Eureka ! Because I rediscovered myself differently: resistant, fighter, strong.

The group of friends seemed to be driven by two completely different motives: some wanted to relax, others seemed to feel superior to their own expectations, as if they had just returned from the most thrilling adventure of their lives.

The first reason, the emotions of success, dreams, possibilities, ideals, seemed to summarize the joy of a reality that can only be found in art, that reality of the soul in which the dream is nothing but an event that was or will be manifested. The second reason, a great leap forward, through a thought that came from a memory, a thought that rises above things and above the times that we went through together, had to fit into the demands of each one towards the aesthetic values of nature. Running across the mountain is a veritable visual encyclopedia.

Leadership: Can you glimpse a world that actually extends beyond the “window” frame, provided you respect the distance of an ideal vision?

While the thought of great performance seemed to belong to each of us, uniquely and prominently, as a result of crossing the bridge between goals and achieving them, each of us could feel the compulsion of the mountain to accept certain circumstances in order to achieve a purpose. Not only was it an exhausting competition, held in full sun, but only in this way we could see a world that really expands beyond the “window” frame, provided we respect the distance of an ideal vision: the power to involve empathetically in the achievement of a difficult task, that of occupying a leading place on the podium.

The window, our opening to the great adventure, as an additional embellishment of the winning spirit, can close at any time if we are unable to see beyond the podium, beyond a symbol of reputation. Sometimes we are too ignorant to see beyond what is presented to us and we take everything “by default”.

I would not be able to explain how the content of every thought existing in each of us, if described in psychological terms, could have influenced the reality of the picture that was before me, the picture on which was carefully placed the color of success: yellow. Everything happens inside a social and psychological algorithm well known to top runners. We felt, in unison, that it was just us against the whole world, guided by the indomitable spirit of the victorious ones, especially since we were just about to be caught up.

Some of us won a place on the podium, proving that we were not just characters hidden inside a composite drawing of several forms seen in exhausting motion, which a figurative Creator, very rigorously, presents in contrast to the exterior. The creative imagination, if it still took control of our thoughts, and how, was due to the fact that the distance between us, through which a win-win information was emitted, was very small.

Leadership: Can you feed your soul with memories that allow you to identify a well-rated face in a crowd, so that the crowd facilitates mutual recognition of the image you wish to communicate?

And then a miracle happened. Teodor prepared a refreshing cocktail, and we knew how to appreciate a fresh drink made from the best natural ingredients. Three colors in one glass, three different amounts from three different assortments. The tricolor in one shot was consumed in one gulp. Whoever looked at the photo of us clinking the glasses, would have felt that someone told a story of survival, healing, life and adventure, in just 5 seconds.

Let’s put the main character, the bartender , inside a retrospective testimony. Let’s remember Teodor. Not in a runner’s outfit, but with a kitchen apron tied around the waist, preparing several kinds of cocktails. Let's remember all of us, with a smile on our faces, with great strength in our hearts, as we looked at each other that evening, with eyes that by no means wear a vest. Encountering no hard resistance from nature, but only enlivened by another call of adventure, we learned to use the intrinsic energy of a group representation, building the bridge between ambition and belonging – called Antissitusni .

These life experiences seem to be the engine of the insights that made Borges treat in his works the theme of memory that pours out, from an overflow of facts not yet definitively consumed, onto a present that was not thought of by you for you, but by others, or by Someone Else:

“Something happened. Anything. Something that we won’t be able to recover, something whose meaning we know, but we don’t know its form, something mundane and ordinary and unsurprising until then, which revealed to us that the universe (which is given to us wholly at every moment, in every place, not only in the works of Dumas) was also there, in that present circumstance. Enter, for here are also the gods, said Heraclitus of Ephesus to those who found him warming himself to the fire in the kitchen.”

Leadership: Can you place yourself in that reality of your soul where the sum of memories is the effect of an event that was or will be manifested at the level of subjective experience?

The deep echo of our friendship will always resound. Thirsty for wide horizons, we tried to capture the secret echo of the universe. It can be seen that we were top runners even on the plane of thoughts, in contrast to the tumult of the previous scene, when the mountain put our skills and strength of character to the test. Then, we tested our emotional balance, by no means did we fall into the trap of letting go and forgetting ourselves.

Many of these thoughts can be found in the painting of a painter who, through the mind-soul connection, captures the inner richness of youth without old age.

Among the stories of life without old age, there is one about the runners from Iaşi who understood that they don’t have to stay in the same loop of destiny, plodding along after a great competition. If God looked at us with the eye that never sleeps, then He saw us only as creations maintained in synchronicity, merged in a halo of pure light, which seems unearthly. Proust would thus emphasize this spiritual kinship:

“At every stage of our journey, we ignore a possible infinity which is nothing more than that property which our memories have of being able to combine with each other.”

Leadership is a catalyst for retrieving memories that don’t leave you when you win a place on the podium, when life gets harder, when common interests disappear, when you have nothing left to offer.

Let’s Remember Ourselves, As We Looked At Ourselves, whenever we set a goal greater than the one originally pursued: the joy of being all together, not just a part, when we live in unison the emotion and the magic of a new beginning.