To Mine and to Yours (Does Nothing Leave Here?)

In each one of us there is a little of our parents, our grandparents, our ancestors.

What is it, for a father, mother or grandfather, to see a son or daughter doing the same things he remembers having done? The same foolish things, the same mannerisms, the same discoveries, the same joys and the same sorrows? It is a pleasure and a concern, at the same time.

Sometimes it seems that children listen little to their parents, that they want to learn everything by themselves; sometimes it seems that they are just like we ourselves were.

Do those who listen more evolve faster? Or is it the opposite? Difficult to know.

I wrote and rewrote this text, to serve as a message, at the graduation of two grandchildren, in high school (*A).

Eighteen years of age. A little more than sixty years ago, I was that age. What might my parents have thought? (my grandparents were no longer alive). These are occasions that lead us to philosophize...

Who are we? What are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going?

I understand that we are mere collections of DNAs, assembled at random, called “people”

Could these coincidences be the “touch” of God? I am one of those who believe in Divine chance and in the Divine nature of chance.

We are an ephemeral gathering of DNAs, struggling to survive, for as long as we are granted, in this spaceship called Earth.

I share the vision of the theologian-philosopher-Jesuit Teillard de Chardin (*01): “humanity is improving itself, perfecting itself”, consistent with love, collaboration, help, valuing the effort toward improvement.

So much presumption and arrogance, from “people”, temporary incarnations of these coincidences, in thinking that they are something beyond this collection of DNAs, to justify their frivolities, their selfishness, because “nothing is taken from here”.

The DNA does not leave. The DNA remains here. Whether in children, or in nephews and nieces. Some sets of DNAs care about the “following generations”, therefore, about themselves. They are the DNAs that, by improving themselves, will remain.

Do not fall for the story that “nothing is taken from here, therefore let us spend”. A probable “creation” of DNAs that, by instinct or cleverness, want your DNAs not to compete with theirs.

Increase your knowledge, your education, your culture and (why not?), your material possessions. Without becoming radical in any aspect.

By the work of the Holy Trinity, in these arrangements of DNA, my DNA is present in one of you in this graduating class. I wish him, and all his classmates, health and joy in life, which is this incarnation.

May you also be able to help our DNAs improve, and when you also have children, nephews, nieces and grandchildren, wherever these DNAs still exist, remember your responsibilities.

An excellent way to help is by setting good examples. If you do not have children, your DNAs will also be out there, in some way, and the examples will work.

Keep your head held high, but without arrogance.

Have ambition and the will to conquer the world, but with care and respect for others.

Be creative, proactive and show initiative.

Do not settle for what you receive from your ancestors.

Be fearless, but with common sense.

Act with enthusiasm, but with caution,

with firmness and toughness, but with affection and ethics,

above all, with love.

Not the sentimental love, nor the devout, nor the carnal, nor the falsely formal love, but the love that Jesus taught us.

It is not easy, but without this love, nothing is worthwhile.

Without love and without Him, nothing is built, nothing improves.

Not love for yourself, but for others and, above all, for your DNA.

It is eternal love.

Thanks to Him, humanity has visibly been improving itself.

Good luck to all the graduates!

Miguel Fernández y Fernández, engineer, chronicler and columnist, member of the National Academy of Engineering and the Engineering Institute,

(*A) grandfather of Lucas and Joaquim Fernández y Fernández Lopes, at the graduation from the high school course at OLM-Rio school (Our Lady of Mercy - Rio)

(*01)_ Teillard de Chardin

written in 2024jun R2026junRk2, 3,445 characters