English
When we utter the word “elegance”, we think of great divas: Angela Molina, Luz Casal, Concha Piquer, Yma Zumaca or Eartha Kitt, to name a few. Never think to Belen Esteban, Fabio McNamara, Torrebruno or La Terremoto de Alcorcon as deserving of such distinction. I doubt whether one is born or made smart and, even more, after a phrase I heard in this post.
Unfairly valuing the qualities of the characters that strut in front of our noses, someone said: “…don’t be wrong, the elegance is the result of several generations based on sirloin”. God, it left me speechless. Soon that horrible phrase came to mind: “the fruit never falls far from the tree”, which bring up the qualities of a person whose skills and credentials are printed as characteristic of their family lineage. Whether we like or not, the pharmacist´s son will inherit the pharmacy, the professor’s, the chair and the noble’s, these absurd monarchical regimes, their titles and wealth.
Wealth and elegance should not come together, but it is true that in the biographies of many representatives of the “elegance” -as they appear in our cultural imagination- there are historical accounts that connect to past with little or no economic pain. The same Royal Academy, increasingly unrealistic and disappointing, defines the word “elegant” as endowed with grace, nobility -where most of us fail- and simplicity, where most of noble people fail. But the most revealing of the definitions which is provided for “elegance”, relates to how to express beautiful thoughts. And there is where elegance and sirloin have their run. Because, although it is also defined as a stylish person with good taste and distinction in dressing, the necessary emotional intelligence to express our thoughts gallantly, dresses and perfumes the more ragged ones.
As an illustration, I take the opportunity to pay tribute to one of the characters that are most elegantly expressed his inaugural speech after twenty-seven years of shabby and unfair imprisonment. Some excerpts of his speech were as follows:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?”
“…our playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you…And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Nelson Mandela, or Madiba, 1994.
ManuManué
When you decide to go and look for apartments in Malaga dare to look into the eyes of God, with that unique and personal elegance that lies within.
