Postcard from Mexico City
México, mi amor. Paseando down the Avenida Paseo de la Reforma, the only thought on my mind was how great life is here. Whilst Europe grapples with endless lockdowns, a plague of safety-ism, and one political scandal after another, life goes on in those remote and tropical parts of the world.
It’s a city full of life, of spirit, of joy. Se puede vivir, no sólo existir. What good is a life spent worrying about things one cannot control, a life spent chasing the wrong things? Mexico City is a place where I feel the richness, the wholeness, of our existence, in all its splendour.
It’s a city that’s colourful. A place full of serendipity. It’s enormous as well — flying into Mexico City Airport at night — the city lights shone on for mile upon mile on end, stretching as far as the eye can see, like little stars glimmering in the night sky. Yet at the same time, the city feels so familiar and intimate. Perhaps it’s the trees that line every street, the bustling joyful curb-side sellers, the murals and street art. The entrepreneurial spirit here is raging — it hits you as soon as you arrive, like a wave of hot air as you step off a plane. Little carts on every street selling everything and anything imaginable. Some may say it’s chaotic, but in reality, everything works together in a brilliant way. There’s an underlying spontaneous order to it.
It feels freer too — there’s a sense of live and let live. Rather than having everything dictated from above, there is trust and responsibility.
Video calls are ok — they can save time when used correctly, but when every human connection is replaced by pixels on a screen, we lose a part of our humanity. It’s great to be in a place where that connection is still possible. I would, of course, not be here if it weren’t for the internet. What I hope is that we are able to see and prioritise the things that truly matter in life and maximise those.
Mexico has its problems, but doesn’t everywhere? Gross domestic product might be lower than that of Europe, but so what? Being here just confirmed what I already suspected — that one’s sense of meaning in life can never come from material possessions. Creo que este país es uno de los más increíbles en todo el mundo. ¡Viva México!
