Santiago Bilinkis l Risk and Reward - Trying to live a life out of the comfort zone

At the end of last week I gave a talk to social entrepreneurs who are part of the Youth Venture program from Ashoka, organized by the Center for Social Innovation at the University of San Andres. In addition to the fact that it was nice for me to return to UdeSA after so many years, it filled me with excitement to see so many of these youngsters so devoted to launch their social projects.

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Uruguay, January 1980

She was 17. He was 19.

In the middle of Summer they decided to take a break from their jobs as a secretary and a bank employee and spend a few days camping with friends close to Cerro del Toro in Piriápolis. The weather was good for a few days of rest at the beach.

On January 7th they decided to take his motorcycle (a Gilera 150) and head to El Chuy, a small town in the Brazilian border, to do some shopping, replenish the camp and, at the same time, spend some time alone. It was a very hot day, they were wearing sporting clothes, shorts, running shoes.

After the visit was over, they headed back to camp.  Exhausted by the heat, they stopped at a bar along the route to drink some fresh water and had a small argument because she, overheated and with her hair down to her waist, did not want to use the helmet anymore. Very decisive, he simply said: “If you don’t wear it, I leave you here”. And with that determination his decision defined the fate of her life.

A couple of few hours later, around 6PM, the sun was still shining high. When they got to a crossroad called El Trébol de Piriapolis (The Clover of Piriapolis), they suddenly saw a bus coming out of control in their direction. They tried to stop, but the crash seemed inevitable. And then the miracle happened.

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A while ago I had the chance to attend a gathering organized by Toty Flores from the MTD-La Matanza at Cooperativa La Juanita. One of the speakers was a young Rabbi called Alejandro Avruj, who I had never heard before. He gave a very insightful speech, about our role as citizens to make Argentina a better place to live, where he focused on not asking God for help but instead rolling up our sleeves and get to work to make a change.

What I want to share with you here is a small story from the Talmud that he told to close his speech. I want to share it for the beauty of its prose as much as the deep, powerful relevance of its message.

The story tells that a long, long time ago in a small town there were two wise rabbis. The followers of every one of them fought for which of them was wiser. One child finally had an idea: He would catch a butterfly, take it to the other rabbi and ask: “Is the butterfly in my hand dead or alive?”. If the Rabbi replied: “Alive”, before opening his hand he would tight his fist squashing it, then show it was dead. If he replied “dead”, he would simply open his hand and let it go flying.

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