Trying to explain ‘Viva Yo’

THE times they are a changing. A once inviable concept that permeated nearly all Spanish life seems to be melting away. ‘Viva yo.’ 

Every old text book concerning learning Spanish warns you of the prevalence of this way of thinking. Why do my Spanish friends always arrive late? If that circumstance has ever annoyed you in the slightest, you need to learn about this very deep seated ‘inherited spiritual life.’

Sometimes they might stop their car in the middle of the road to talk to someone they might not have seen for 15 minutes? Viva yo! 

Things, circumstances, revolve around them. The concept itself is deeply ingrained, yet almost mystical in how it operates daily. 

In the ‘Viva yo’ syndrome, ONLY they exist. All other meetings, motions or planned events are not existential to their living pattern.  ‘Viva yo’ was once a highly inbred, inherited, and instinctive Spanish philosophy of life that transcends all other planned events or circumstantial situations. 

If you live here long enough and ‘imbibe’ deeply from the mother well’s waters, this secretive attitude about life could well become a part of you. Once inculcated into your living system the new law comes into effect immediately, situations flow around you and if they don’t, they have no precedence or validity until you give it to them. Therefore, all happenings are of the extraneous kind until your truth gives them credibility.      

Situations are totally disconnected from reality unless you deem it as important as such. Any and all states of affairs have no validity, no importance; something like distant clouds or an unsuspected extraneous noise. 

Imbibing enough ‘Viva yo,’ your world re-molecularises itself and is no longer is encumbered by plans, dates, or commitments. Your world becomes a ‘slide’ forward or to the side, a drift that allows you to flow to any scene but only when you want to. 

Furthermore, the event doesn’t become real, authentic, or personalised, until you are there. This minor adaptation to your human nature changes history, time and space; all therein becoming personal and relevant to only you.

 If you’re passing a good time with friends, drinking, barking about politics, or just generally setting the world straight, why in heaven’s good nature would you want to change the situation for a previously arranged earlier demand to be somewhere else? Viva Yo!

You are a unique and anointed child of the universe; why in the hell would you want to leave a known pleasant reality for an unknown one? It’s a Spanish law of life, and the universe, otherwise you wouldn’t be allowed to enjoy the present moments so well and comfortably.

Those unfortunate foreigners that haven’t imbibed deeply enough from the ‘copa de la vida,’ (cup of life), are forever condemned to perform meaningless calendar routines. As you know, even the great American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson pronounced, ‘a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.’