"The path to perfection is made up of favorable modifications"
Don Simón Rodríguez
The great characters of history are only human beings. It's a phrase we've heard many times. And there is a lot of truth in it. In the net, the sum in positive and negative of their successes and failures makes them an example for the world to follow; and despite being as human as we are, in the end they turn out to be very special human beings. Such is the case of Don Simón Rodríguez, Master of the Liberator.
According to Augusto Mijares, Venezuelan writer, historian and educator, Minister of Education in the famous Trienio adeco (1948), explained in a compendium of essays about Latin American civic heroes about Don Simón Rodríguez, written 80 years ago today and published in 1946, entitled "Men and Ideas in America", the following:
"He never did anything for himself and his life is a series of lamentable, sometimes grotesque failures. Is it possible to admit that that eccentric dreamer, who never mastered his own destiny, exercised any influence on the spirit of the hero, whose most notable characteristic is, the inflexible and indefatigable will, knowing how to think and knowing how to do?" (see Augusto Mijares' essay in Spanish, “Cuando el Maestro del Libertador quiso ser el Maestro de “Los niños pobres””, in https://tinyurl.com/44sufejj).
In fact, the Liberator in 1824 wrote in a letter a recognition addressed to his Master exalting his figure, which would not be understood towards an individual with that profile. But Mijares resolves the apparent contradiction:
"As with all misfits, Rodriguez's true life is that of his thoughts. That is where his spirit is, and not in the external events, among which his bewilderment stumbles. There we find, living, those "great sentences" which, according to the disciple (Bolivar), had formed his heart "for freedom, for justice, for the great, for the beautiful" (read Bolivar's letter to Simon Rodriguez of 1824, p. 141).
But the most important part of this story is this discovery: "...the lessons of the Master were above all incitements to action, norms of tenacity and patience; and that they were the ones that could best adapt to Bolivar's character and to the work that was reserved for him" (emphasis added).
The thought that begins this note, "The road to perfection is made up of favorable modifications" is really as quoted: "a sagacious and complete program of moral culture".
Venezuelans have sunk into despair because things have not yet worked out as we had hoped. And it turns out that we have to repeat them not once, but many, many times until they do. Many have left because "there is nothing more to do in Venezuela" and that is precisely the teaching of persistence that the Master Simón Rodríguez transmitted to the Liberator in such a way that he repeated that "to do things well it is necessary to do them twice: that is to say, that the first teaches the second". But he added:
"Not twice, many, many, many times he had to restart his work during those 20 years! Not twice, but many, many, many times, we all men have to restart the execution of our purposes; perhaps restart life itself, when fate is hostile, or our own weaknesses seem to have snatched from us forever the fruit of our endeavors".
But those teachings must be remembered and kept as truths. We Venezuelans have already forgotten the quintessence of what those who built our nationality learned from their teachers. And that must be remembered, talked about, discussed, written down and pounded over and over again so that we do not forget it, with the intention that it be reborn from the depths of each one of us as Venezuelans. From a yellowish book more than 80 years old, I rediscover what the Liberator learned from a Master who was ultimately responsible for his pupil to understand and act when it was necessary for the rescue of our freedom.
Mijares concludes: "Both Bolivar's observation, as well as that of Simón Rodríguez, are, therefore, of indefinite and universal application. Translated from their philosophical generality, both mean the same thing: we never consider the adverse event as a total failure; the persistence of misfortune can be annulled by the persistence of action and faith; that failure does not frighten us, because "to do things well it is necessary to do them twice"; that we are not even discouraged by our own discouragement, because "the road to perfection is composed of favorable modifications" (emphasis added).
Venezuelans are now in despair and decay, so much so that it is already contagious in those of us who have avoided it, due to so much bad news that includes the surrender and delivery of the opposition flags to the regime at the hands of those who do not deserve to represent the Venezuelan people.
On November 21, the majority of Venezuelans will turn their backs on those who betrayed us, of that I have no doubt, which will result in the regime, once again, getting its way under the shadow of a corrupt electoral system. But this cannot mean that this adverse event means a total failure because "the road to perfection is made up of favorable modifications". After the 21N, other proposals that were not heard due to the strident noise of those who were never interested in the welfare of the Nation, may finally be attended to. This will be the first of many favorable modifications that this new post 21N scenario will have. And as Mijares indicated in that wonderful essay: "We cannot aspire to a "state of perfection" but we must impose on ourselves "a path of perfection"". This is an incitement to action and a lesson that we must learn very well from now on...
Caracas, October 23, 2021
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