“The tree that falls in the middle of the forest, if no one is there to hear if it makes a noise or not when it falls, then we will never know, it will be as if it does not exist.”
I read this statement some time ago, referring to the so-called Parameter A and the possibilities of contact with extraterrestrial civilizations, and it kept spinning in my head, not precisely in relation to aliens.
Regardless of the possible philosophical approaches that could be derived from that sentence, it made me think of us, the Cubans.
«Making noise» when falling, or when being, has not marked, as a rule, our existence. This, regardless of whether the inhabitants of this island are classified as noisy and boisterous.
I am referring to that doing things without the need to go around disclosing them. In this land there are many, many, who, especially in these two years of pandemic, have starred in events and assumed behaviors worthy of inspiring the script of a movie, or appearing in the main news headlines.
However, in the vast majority of cases, this has not been the case. I don’t know if they were stoic, modest, or simply because they didn’t appreciate the greatness of those actions.
I think the last reason mentioned is the one that could weigh more. It happens that we have lived, generally, in such difficult conditions, that we have learned from the cradle to run for the one next door, even without knowing it; that this capacity for resistance and, at the same time, that dedication, we understand as the most normal-natural, according to my adolescent neighbor.
Despite not appearing the name or the photo in the press, despite not receiving any diploma —with very deserved exceptions—, Cubans, like the trees in the quote that begins this text, continue to make forest, sometimes falling, many times sprouting, but always without making too much noise, at least in our daily lives.
And that is not equivalent, it is worth clarifying, to the fact that it was as if we did not exist. We know that well… although there are those who, in other latitudes, want to act ignorant.
