What I have lived for

      Hello everyone, I am going to dedicate today's entry to talk about Bertrand Russell, concretely about his essay What I have lived for which is the introduction to his memories.

      But before starting, it might be necessary to learn a bit more about who was Bertrand Russell, because, despite having worked side by side with some celebrities such as Albert Einstein , he has not recieved the recognition he should have had, at least here in Spain and I have to admitt that before last week, I had not heard about him neither. So in order to write this entry I have been reading in different websites curiosities and facts about his life, and i found it extremly interesting and helpfull  to understand his 3 passions, which I will develop in the next parragraphs. But again the question is Who was Bertrand Russell?
   
      Bertrand Russell was born in England in 1872 and he was a philosopher, mathematician, logician, social critic, historian and political activist, who supported female suffrage, racial equality, homosexuality and pacifism. Throughout his life he suffered many armed conflicts like the first and second world war, during which, he was imprisoned. He also demonstrated his objection for Vietnam's war and founded in association with Albert Einstein Pugwash movement. Moreover he led the campaign against the nuclear disarmament, which made him be imprisioned for second time in his life, at the age of 90. He won the Nobel prize for literature in 1950 and until his final day he fought with tireless passion and optimism to carry out his projects and achieve his objectives.

      In his essay What I have lived for Russell talks about which ones have been the most important things in his life with the perspective of time. In his case those are love, knowledge and pity for suffering of mankind.

      It is very curious to check that the three passions he talks about appear in the same chronological orden in the life of the philosopher. He starts talking about love, a love that relieves his lonliness. It is remarkable that during his youth, Bertrand Russell felt terribly lonely, his education was imparted by particular professors who used to gain confidence with Russell easily and talked with him about topics that were of a great interest for the author but which constituted a taboo for those times. So when Russell's parents knew about it, they  dismissed the professor and found a new one, and again Russell was completly alone with his thoughts. It was not until he arrived to Cambridge that he felt  really integrated in a group of friends, teenagers with recolutionary thoughts who made clandestine meetings once a week to talk about them. When we read Bertrand Russell's 3 passions, specially love, we tend to think of another kind of love, but we must not subestimate the love of friendship, feeling part of a group, were you are understood and nobody try to cut off your wings. Some years later he also found another love, after marrying his first wife, but there's no doubt that his biggest love were maths, maby the only ones that accompained him during his whole life.

      His second great passion was knowledge, a knowledge that made him wish to understand the hearts of men or why do the stars shine. Maby it was that love for knowledge what moved him to work for the Trinity's Fellowship, and carry out various trips to foreing places, in which he was able to contemplate firsthand the situation of those new countries, political and economical as well as their culture. But above all, one of the more remarkable things he did to spread knowledge was the foundation of the progresist school Bacon Hill, where he pretended to impart a new type of education, free of the taboos and prejudices of the time.

      Finally, his third passion was pity for the suffering of mankind. Bertrand Russell had to live hard times, throughout his life, he had to suffer events like the burst of the first and second world war as well as Vietnam's war. Specially in the 30s after he got divorced, he decided to fight against Hitler. Unfortunately, he was captured and imprisioned, and lived in his own skin the miseries and hardships that war provokes and so, he mentions the horror of the victims tortured by their oppressors and the echoes of cries of pain.

      Russell conceives his two first passions as something wonderful that elevates him to another divine dimension. In contrast it is the horror of war and human cruelty what bring him back to earth.

      From my point of view, if I had to decide which are my 3 passions, I would probably agree with Bertrand Russell and choose love, knowledge and pity for the suffering of mankind too.

      In first place I would choose love, because it is the strongest armor we will have to protect ourselfs from the crudity of the world. Sometimes we try to hide behind masks, that we create oruselves from pain and hypocrisy, in order to pretend that nothing can affect us. But those masks, as everything else, will deteriorate with the pass of the years and they will become dust, the remind of what they were once. Instead, love come from wherever it comes will provide us of an armour stronger than the own time and that will give us strengh to face all adversities, come what may.

      Secondly, I would choose knowledge. If love is the strongest armor, then knowledge is the strongest weapon that we will have in this vast battle that is life. It is a waepon that we are given in the same moment we are born and that we can improve through the years until our final day. A weapon that nobody can snatch away from us and that will be the only thing we will have to survive in that large ocean we call society.

      To conclude, I consider pity for the suffering of mankind, as well as sympathy, two essential elements which are very significant in almost every aspect of life, not just in war matters as it was the case of Bertrand Russell. There is a whole world that lies in front of us full of all type of injustices. Have you ever wonder how many children suffer from bullying everyday? and How many of them live each one of their days wishing that it is their last one? they are also victims tortured by their oppressors, I can also hear the echos of cries and pain here. There's no doubt that these are the situations that as Russell said make a mockery of what humankind should be.

      These are the reasons that sumarize the election of my three passions. I hope you have enjoyed this entry. Looking forward to reading your comments.