Francisco Miraval
A few days ago, somebody –unintentionally, I think- asked an excellent question. This person wanted to know why all my stories and commentaries are always short, usually 500 words or less. I provided a preliminary answer, mentioning matters of style and being busy with other responsibilities. However, I am still thinking about what the real answer should be.
In a sense, I write short stories and commentaries because of self-imposed limitations that perhaps I do not recognize or understand. Let me explain myself with a story I first heard during a speech by personal coach and motivational speaker Marcela Toledo in Denver.
Toledo told the story of a recently married woman who, wanting to impress her husband, decided to cook a meat dish in the oven in the same way her mother did it. The woman called her mother and got the recipe. The mother also told the woman to remember she had to cut and discard the tips of the meat before cooking it.
The meal was delicious and the woman called her mother again, this time asking if the secret of such a delicious meal was cutting the tips of the meat. The mother said that in effect that was the secret, because that was what she learned from her own mother.
Later, the newly wed woman spoke with her grandmother and told her about the delicious meal, indicating that now she also knew the secret of cutting the tips of the meat. After laughing, the grandmother explained that she had to cut the tips of the meat because she never had a dish big enough to cook all the meat at once.
Like the woman in the story, I too live with self-imposed and unnecessary limitations, some of them passed from generation to generation, sometimes unintentionally, but with real results. It is like what happened to a certain elephant that was chained to force the elephant to walk in circles. One day the chain was removed, but the elephant kept moving only in circles. The chain has been internalized.
However, from a different perspective, we all face limitations imposed to us by others in our society. For example, recently somebody suggested me not to apply for a certain position not because I am not qualified, but because I was not born in the United States and, in addition to writing stories in English, I also write stories in Spanish.
I know that is only prejudice, but those prejudices guide the behavior of many people who, directly or indirectly, decide about me and about my future. Due to their prejudice, they will never give me the same opportunities others enjoy.
I am not complaining. I am not saying I am the victim. I want to say, however, that it is interesting that the same people who refuse to share opportunities with us then criticize us for not doing more of what we do. It is irrelevant, because the constant small coin is better than an infrequent big one.