So you planned it all out
The next few glorious days;
Now watch, without a pout,
As it all surely decays.

      Be a child swimming in a sea of endless imagination and wonder—an infinite sky of beauty and adventure, a boundless meadow of dreams and ambitions—and anxiously map your wishes along your lively trail. Be the architect of your life, the master of your soul, the conductor of your train that flies towards the universal destiny—and thus demonstrate your humanity.

      Then be a sage of inestimable wisdom, a savant of immeasurable knowledge, a Siddhartha of countless experiences and let yourself be sapped from that ocean of myriad chaotic possibilities to a determined river. Do not fight or struggle, fret or frown, despair or deject, for the brook is strong and its life is short; instead, wonder at the realms that the rivulet uncovers for you, marvel at the strength with which you have merged. Admire the vigor of the tributary that drove through your plans (like a dagger through flesh), and the craft with which it eroded and carved its own path to share with you.

      All this time, don’t forget to remain a child… a wild child… a full child… for the canal is wide; there is room for wish and hope and desire… But, as you are serenaded by your Guadalquivir, always tend an ear to the deaf souls of the post-romantic Spaniards who heeded not this counsel:

Planea lo que quiera,
Y aprovecha de su caída

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