In the face of so much rigidity, flexibility.

By Mariana Conde

For twenty years I was a vegetarian, going through a couple of years of veganism during the pandemic when it was easy and convenient to do so. Today, if it were necessary to categorize my eating habits, I would consider myself a flexitarian. That is, I try to eat mostly a plant-based diet, but occasionally eat seafood, eggs or some dairy. Let's just say I no longer freak out if my vegetable soup is made from chicken broth. I have found this to be a comfortable and more sustainable way for me to inhabit the omnivore world.

The confinement from the COVID crisis left us with ways of working flexibly that are here to stay and have broadened the spectrum of employable people as well as the way we meet. 

And, until before Trump won the last U.S. election, there was room for another kind of fluidity as well, that of gender. 

Being flexible has always been considered a quality in almost any field. A flexible material is better than a rigid one, it is less likely to break. A flexible person, an employee, a service provider who can react to a variety of situations and individuals is appreciated. Muscular flexibility is essential to avoid injuries or fractures. And, of course, with our children, it is better to accommodate certain standards and expectations to each personality and adjust as they grow older. 

Of course, there are exceptions such as law or ethics where there is no room for flexibility; even so, there is room to debate them and analyze their relevance. 

But, we are entering a new era in which every aspect of life seems to be becoming more rigid, radical, polarized. 

Where is the value of flexibility?

We go from hearing that we must accept everything to accepting nothing. The algorithm leads us more and more to be deaf to opinions opposed to our own and to convince ourselves that only we are right.  

And I came to believe that we were leaving behind tolerance (a stingy word, insufficient for all human endeavors) to approach genuine acceptance of one another.... 

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