The expansion of pain
All the things that go through our minds and bodies after an accident we suffer without having experienced it. The empathy that puts us in others' shoes: of those who weep, of those who wait, of those who despair. The chance that manifests itself continuously: who did not get on the train despite having the ticket, who was in another carriage, who changed seats while already on the train. The heads and tails of the world. Solidarity and greed. People who give and people who take. The vultures that feed ahead of time. The system that allows that, while bodies of snatched lives are still being searched for, business begins to be made with tickets that skyrocket in price and scams that unscrupulously take advantage of pain. And those who are always campaigning and do not stop doing so because they come first and their unbearable noise does not intend to solve, only to deafen. The wheel that turns and turns and places thoughts on top of one another so that we never quite finish sifting through them.
When an accident occurs, we become aware of a series of facts we had never heard before or that, if they had ever been explained, had gone unnoticed. We pay more attention during tragedies. One of these facts is that Spain is one of the countries with the most high-speed train networks in the world. The phrase itself already sounds a bit strange. But it gets worse with the next piece of information, because as a result of the tragedy, we have learned that the various Spanish governments have dedicated much more money to expanding this network than to maintaining it. In fact, they have allocated half of the average invested by countries in the European Union. In other words, in Spain, there is more network and less maintenance. These kinds of decisions I can only understand as competitive and partisan, because it makes no sense to be the first at something if you do not take proper care of that thing. In general, if we are not to live beyond our means, the most sensible thing is that, if you cannot take care of what you already have as you should, you should not try to make it grow, because the problem will only get bigger. And with the matter of transporting people from one place to another, do not take risks. Or rather, with people's lives, do not take risks, as a principle. People already risk their own lives enough as it is. But beyond transport and beyond economic terms, on other occasions we have to decide whether we want to expand or maintain. Whatever it may be. From friends to family or the kitchen at home. And expanding and maintaining are not contradictory words. We can expand and take care of the maintenance of the expansion. But to do so, we must have a plan. A consistency. A common sense that is scarce, often due to cynicism and malice. Because if we cannot, why do we expand? And if we can expand and do not take care of it, why do we do it? When will we assume that it makes no sense to continue growing if we do not truly become great?
Unfortunately, very unfortunately, what Spain is expanding are avoidable tragedies. And this should be the only journey that ends abruptly.
