This week I turned 35 - a round number, dangerously making me approach what shall be middle point of my life-expectancy. A reflection on friendship, football and the waste of early death: Aaron Swartz's tragedy.
Among the several presents I got the past days, one had a special bitter-sweet taste: some photos of my old football team, from when I was 17 or 18. There I am, showing all the pride and shine of my late teenage years - which imply, naturally, less kilos (and less charm!).
Playing football is one of the things I love the most - for sure one of the very few things I'll gladly go out for in a cold, rainy morning. But this period in which I played federate football, was most of all a singular experience on the human level. There, I had the opportunity to better understand the meaning of team work, passionate dedication, generosity and other (lets call them) values.
Playing football is one of the things I love the most - for sure one of the very few things I'll gladly go out for in a cold, rainy morning. But this period in which I played federate football, was most of all a singular experience on the human level. There, I had the opportunity to better understand the meaning of team work, passionate dedication, generosity and other (lets call them) values.
Even though I barely shared other interests with my companions, this understanding of each other's roles, fragilities and strong points, struggling for a rewarding goal, made the eleven-guys-running-after-a-ball experience something much bigger. And today, almost 20 years later, we experience true joy and respect when occasionally meeting.
If there's something these 35 years have thought me is the vague preciseness of the word friendship: vague on its reasons, precise on its condition.
So, sharing quests and at the same time building friendships is undoubtedly one of the most intense human experiences. And that can be proven by many of the nostalgic army, high-school or other team-related memories, namely involving matters of survival. The more essential the goal, the stronger the bond - even among people that shared the same experience on opposite sides.
If there's something these 35 years have thought me is the vague preciseness of the word friendship: vague on its reasons, precise on its condition.
So, sharing quests and at the same time building friendships is undoubtedly one of the most intense human experiences. And that can be proven by many of the nostalgic army, high-school or other team-related memories, namely involving matters of survival. The more essential the goal, the stronger the bond - even among people that shared the same experience on opposite sides.
35 years: one's birthday is a celebration of life but also a reminder that death is closer. Also a word: expectancy: expectancy, not more, as the privileges, anguishes and experiences of old-ageing are reserved for only a few of us. And this week was shadowed by the tragic death of a brilliant 26 years-old young man, Aaron Swartz. The reasons? Apparently, one: his love for sharing, namely knowledge.
Allegedly, Aaron hacked the M.I.T. library services and made public about 4 million of scientific articles from the JSTOR database. This lead to a huge lawsuit, which apparently became's Aaron's life shadow, to the utmost limit. Activist, brilliant thinker and unanimously considered a truly inspiring and gifted person, Aaron decided to end his life in a tragic, lonely, way - by hanging himself in his Brooklyn apartment.
Reading his blog, Raw Thought, one gets an overview of his interests, of his unquiet, powerful mind, and, mostly, of his truly remarkable good nature. Among the many posts, one called my attention, for its human beauty: the GM factory in Vermont.
Basically, a tyrant ruled GM car factory was one of America's worst: low production, faulty cars, drugs, alcohol and gambling in the facilities, high work abstinence, constant conflicts between workers and managers, fights, shoutings, strikes, etc. So, GM shut down the place.
Then the facilities were taken by the Japanese giant Toyota, who surprisingly rehired the former staff and implemented a new way of working, based on the andon cord: whenever anyone had a problem in the assembly line just pulled this cord, and immediately supervisors, managers, etc., run there to try to solve the problem. No shouting, no screaming - just a genuine effort to share the problem and solve it. As a team.
Allegedly, Aaron hacked the M.I.T. library services and made public about 4 million of scientific articles from the JSTOR database. This lead to a huge lawsuit, which apparently became's Aaron's life shadow, to the utmost limit. Activist, brilliant thinker and unanimously considered a truly inspiring and gifted person, Aaron decided to end his life in a tragic, lonely, way - by hanging himself in his Brooklyn apartment.
Reading his blog, Raw Thought, one gets an overview of his interests, of his unquiet, powerful mind, and, mostly, of his truly remarkable good nature. Among the many posts, one called my attention, for its human beauty: the GM factory in Vermont.
Basically, a tyrant ruled GM car factory was one of America's worst: low production, faulty cars, drugs, alcohol and gambling in the facilities, high work abstinence, constant conflicts between workers and managers, fights, shoutings, strikes, etc. So, GM shut down the place.
Then the facilities were taken by the Japanese giant Toyota, who surprisingly rehired the former staff and implemented a new way of working, based on the andon cord: whenever anyone had a problem in the assembly line just pulled this cord, and immediately supervisors, managers, etc., run there to try to solve the problem. No shouting, no screaming - just a genuine effort to share the problem and solve it. As a team.
As by miracle, the factory's production and atmosphere changed drastically, becoming an American industrial highlight. Quoting Aaron: "Grievances and absenteeism fell away and workers started saying they actually enjoyed coming to work. The Fremont factory, once one of the worst in the US, had skyrocketed to become the best. The cars they made got near-perfect quality ratings. And the cost to make them had plummeted. It wasn’t the workers who were the problem; it was the system."
(Do yourself a favour and visit Aaron's website and blog! Really!)
I think "pulling the andon cord" is a marvellous metaphor for the sharing of a problem, hoping that team work succeeds where one, alone, could not.
Such a waste when the cord just remains, untouched, and the gift of life fades slowly hanging in the cruel, inhuman, industrial assembly lines that so often rule or days. And usually driven by the worst mankind has to offer - greed.
One of the most beautiful episodes of these 35 years happened when I was saying goodbye to a friend, after a day spent together. We were outside the door, chatting, and he was preparing to walk home, still some 30 minutes away:
- Hey, I'm going. Can you borrow me your football ball, for some dribbling?, he asked.
- Sure, but why? I mean, it's late night...
- Oh, just to do me company. I don't like walking home alone.
Text by Rafael Fraga © 2013
rafaelfragamusic |at| gmail.com
(Do yourself a favour and visit Aaron's website and blog! Really!)
I think "pulling the andon cord" is a marvellous metaphor for the sharing of a problem, hoping that team work succeeds where one, alone, could not.
Such a waste when the cord just remains, untouched, and the gift of life fades slowly hanging in the cruel, inhuman, industrial assembly lines that so often rule or days. And usually driven by the worst mankind has to offer - greed.
One of the most beautiful episodes of these 35 years happened when I was saying goodbye to a friend, after a day spent together. We were outside the door, chatting, and he was preparing to walk home, still some 30 minutes away:
- Hey, I'm going. Can you borrow me your football ball, for some dribbling?, he asked.
- Sure, but why? I mean, it's late night...
- Oh, just to do me company. I don't like walking home alone.
Text by Rafael Fraga © 2013
rafaelfragamusic |at| gmail.com
Post-scriptum: some etymology connections I find interesting in this article's context:
Companion: from Late Latin companionem, from com+panis. The same bread.
Colleague: from latin collega "partner in office," from com + legis. With law. The ones under the same rule or law.
Cord: from Greek khorde "string, catgut, chord, cord,". Basically, what connects, or what is harmoniously connected, like musical notes in chords.
Adapted from here.
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