Given this political paraphernalia that we are experiencing, it occurred to me to resort to the classics, and there I went to The Quijote and the advice he gives Sancho Panza before he went to govern the Barataria island.
“Sancho, son, pay attention to this your mentor (your godfather), who wants to advise you and be a guide and guide to guide you and take you to a safe port from this stormy sea where you are going to enter… that trades and high positions are not another nothing but a deep sea of confusions.
Firstly, you have to fear (love) God because in fearing (loving) him is wisdom and being wise you will not be able to err in anything.
Second, you have to set your eyes on who you are, trying to know yourself, which is the most difficult knowledge that can be imagined.
Knowing you will not swell like the frog that wanted to equalize with the ox.
Show off, Sancho, the humility of your lineage and do not despise yourself by saying that you come from farmers, and pride yourself more on being a humble virtuous than a proud sinner.
Look, Sancho: if you take the path of virtue and you pride yourself on doing virtuous deeds, there is no reason to be envious of princes and lords, because blood is inherited, but virtue is acquired.
May the tears of the poor find in you more compassion, but be just as fair with the pleas of the rich.
Try to discover the truth through the promises and gifts of the rich, as through the sobs and importunities of the poor.
If by chance you do not apply all the rigor of the law, let it not be motivated by the gift, or by having been bribed, but moved by mercy.
Walk slowly, speak calmly, but not in such a way that you seem to be listening to yourself… since all affectation is bad.
Eat little and dine less because the health of the whole body is forged in the office of the stomach.
If you follow these precepts and these rules, Sancho, your days will be long, your fame will be eternal, you will live in peace and the approval of the people, and in the last steps of life death will overtake you in a soft and ripe old age.
* Archbishop of Cordoba; member of the Interreligious Committee for Peace (Comipaz)