I believe we all have a special switch inside our head. Strictly speaking, we have endless. Infinite switches in our brains that are continually changing their position. From GREEN to RED, or vice versa. We can even leave them in an intermediate state, in a fragile balance in which the minimum stimulus can dump them into any position.

These switches are associated with every memory, every experience, every person who crosses our path. Each new element that enters our world creates its own switch, and its position is determined by what we call our first impression. When something goes well, we like it, it captivates us, it convince us, it creates its switch in GREEN. When something gives us a bad feeling, switch to RED. And during the life of that element in our thinking, and then in our memory, every event that happens, every information in addition, each relationship established with other elements, can reverse its switch position.

The switches that fascinate me most are those associated with the people we encounter in our life. These switches are large, bright and exciting, and are associated to the whole person, not just to the immense physical and emotional set up of a human being, but also to its history. With people, we somehow do an exercise of generalization, saving thousands of switches that should cause each of their actions or words to incorporate all of them to the large switch that we have created for that person. There are people whose switches have never changed their position since we met them the first time. There are others that caused us an incorrect first impression, and compel us to reverse the switch as we know them better. Even there are people who torn between the GREEN and RED since we met them, and will remain so forever, or until we got tired and decided to leave them indefinitely in the equilibrium position indicating that we do not trust them, or even to condemn them on RED by simple laziness.

But here’s a type of event that excite me particularly, and that starts with a switch that takes a long time in RED, with a person we know and we have condemned for many small things. Very rarely happens that a particular act or some few words from the owner of the switch, move you so that they blow the switch to GREEN no turning back. You know that for you, that person will always be GREEN, whatever happens and whatever he or she does. And you realize that few people have lived something like that, that you’re a privileged who has managed to expose as GREEN a switch that everyone sees RED. To me, those CLICKS make life worthwhile. They’re the magic part of the trick.

Roberto was the first person who broke into pieces his huge switch in RED. He gave me a lesson, and got my switches rarely pass to RED since then. Now I keep them as long as I can in equilibrium, avidly seeking an excuse to put them in GREEN again.

[TO BE CONTINUED...]