Alejandro Martinez Rutto

Michel d'Eychem, M. de Montaigne: "The lines of the spirit we become older than the face" Patience louse, that the night is long By: Alejandro Martinez Rutto was Saturday, pay day for those working in the tasks of construction and my father left the house hurriedly, when the sun showed that the midday gave way to afternoon. His goal: get paid for all trips made during the week for which the engineers worked. It was during the seventies and in Maicao large buildings were built, shops and warehouses to store goods. When night fell the old man returned empty-handed: the payment was not established and asked to wait until next Monday. My mother, to comfort him, he picked up one of those of his extensive repertoire and, before to continue with the cries he said "patience louse that the night is long." So our mother used to say, a full-blooded riohachera, when things were complicated and took a color, say, some pro- family interests or desires or hopes.

When she said and we all knew that it was advisable to remain calm and know that the outcome, if favorable, would not be in short time. That night my dad to sleep with no money in their pockets but with the conviction that he should not worry about something that was not in their hands to solve. My mother and his contemporaries, most of them a few years in school, learning communication, language, music and even some literature on the evening gatherings that brought together all children, youth, adults and seniors, to exchange experiences the day.