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And one day I finally decided to change the faucet in the kitchen

Francisco Miraval

Last week, I hired a plumber to install a new faucet in the kitchen’s sink. It was a changed motivated by aesthetic reasons: the old faucet did not have a nice look, perhaps because it has been used for more than ten years. But it was working well, or so I thought.

After the new faucet was installed, I discovered the old one was partially clogged and, therefore, water did not reach the proper pressure. Also, there was a leak, so tiny it was very difficult to notice. But the combination of both circumstances for more than a decade created such a level of corrosion and humidity under the sink that we were very close to face a major problem.

In other words, contrary to my opinion, the old faucet was not working well. However, because I saw it and use every day, and because I was not comparing it with any other faucet, I got so use to the problems that I assumed that was the proper way for the faucet to work. There were irregularities causing problems, but they were never detected.

That experience led me to think that perhaps there are other elements in my life, far more important than just a faucet in my kitchen, that are also creating problems for me, even if I don’t see or detect those problems. I would like to know what other things in my life are not working properly, but I still see them as “normal” simply because I am used to them.

For example, we believe and assume that sending our children to school is something normal and natural; because that’s the way they receive their education. But, is that really the case? After all, no other species of animal (not a pejorative term) on earth sends their youngster outside the family to be “educated.”

In fact, until less than two hundred years ago, most of the education happened in the family or very close to the family, for example, with tutors or at churches.

In the same way I got so used to an inefficient faucet without ever noticing its problems, perhaps we got used to an inefficient education (economic, judicial, immigration) system. And because we use that system every day, we accept it as “normal,” without noticing its problems.

Or perhaps it is something even more personal, such as my values, believes, and ideas. After all, they are very close to me and I use them every day. Perhaps that’s why I don’t see its deficiencies. Perhaps, like the never-detected leak under the faucet in my kitchen, my ideas are eroding and oxidizing me and I am not even aware of that.

Whatever the case, I believe the same aesthetic motivation that led me to change the faucet could be used, at a different level, to change other things in my life. It said that Einstein said that scientists go where poets (creators) already went. Art, therefore, can show us the abnormalities in our “normal” lives.

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