Connections is an exercise of introspection and honesty, a journey back in time to reflect on some of the moments and relationships that had a meaningful impact on our lives. Connections talks about us all – the experiences that bring us joy or sadness, the little things we might take for granted, the people we meet.
Did you use to invent stories when you were little? What were they about?
I used to play with action
figures, mixed with all the toys. Building huge cities across the house.
My parents’ legs covered by mattresses was mountains, hills. The track
in the carpets, roads. Other thing about inventing stories I would like
to point out. The video games was pretty…. simple. And added to this,
there was the fact that they were in English. My friends and I barely
understood its stories or mechanics, so we INVENTED, and I mean, A LOT.
So someone, for example, invented that in a motorcycle game, there was a
trick that you would be able to enter in a house and have a lunch and
sleep a little.
We all tried for weeks to do the
trick. Back in my memory, there was a whole world inside those games. It
is with a bit of melancholia feeling that I look back to those games in
emulators to see that most of the fun was just in our heads.
What’s the most beautiful memory from your childhood?
The infinite freedom in the afternoons with street friends. Dirt roads, bicycles by our feet.
Tell me about a person who had an impact on your life.
A history teacher, who taught
there was many views for the same reality. He gave me a copy of
“Chariots of the Gods?” by Erich von Däniken. I think there I earned
the right to be curious.
What did you learn from your past relationships?
There is no free-ride when you
talk about relationships. The persons involved will be touched and
marked, somehow. And I don’t see it in a pessimist perspective, by the
contrary, there lies the beauty of it.
Did a stranger do something nice for you?
I cannot remember anytime where
someone helped me, without me asking first for help. Usually I like to
be in the other side, being the stranger who helps.
Did you do something nice for a stranger?
Often. I like how people react with disbelief at random acts of kindness. There is some kind of magical, humane touch in it.
When in your life did you feel most alone?
At night, after college or work,
in a daily commute, at rush hours. I believe it is that small period
where all the hopes of the day where lost and new one did not born yet.
Rodrigo, 28 years old
