Not for beginners

Whilst watching a biographical film about the US poet Elisabeth Bishop I heard this famous quote by the musician Tom Joabim, 'Brasil is not for beginners'. In five words it summed up my experience. Brasil is an amazing country full of the most incredible, sometimes unfathomable, extremes. It can be quite uncomfortable sitting in opulence looking out on scenes of abject poverty. And yet this is a common occurrence. Not necessarily to be accepted, but to be somehow internalised and lived with. I for one have my struggles and discomforts with the inequality, with the corruption, with the lack of infrastructure and the list could go on.

To stay too long in this place of confusion would be to miss the beauty and the joy that is also a central quality to the country and the people. Reconciling the differences is what makes Brasil a complex country and one that as Tom Joabim says quite accurately is not for beginners. To not only survive Brasil, to appreciate and enjoy the people, climate, landscape, culture and natural abundance one needs to be open to the present, to the possibility for change and to the endless riches.

As Elisabeth Bishop observed in her time - the country and it's people cried tears of sadness when JFK was assassinated and yet when the military took control of power in Brasil - nothing - daily life continued, people played football on the beach just like any other day. These differing responses to major political events is hard to reconcile. When discussing this with a Portuguese friend he described the different ways countries stereotypically respond to significant events. For example, if there was an announcement that the world was to end tomorrow - Germans would turn to their spreedsheets to analyses the implications, Portuguese would run to the banks to withdraw their money and the Brasilian's would simply order another beer, smile and carry on like nothing happened. Not because they are blase, it's more akin to a sense of why get stressed out when there is nothing you can do, enjoy life while you can. From that standpoint the Brasilian response has much to offer.