The fatigue of work added to what we have to deal with every day seems to absorb us in a Venezuela that gives no respite to anyone. Getting food or medicine, dealing with basic services that do not work and all of its consequences seem like an endless race. On the other hand, we have the exasperating economic management of a country that makes us face an endless list of problems. These are always on the lookout to put us in a big dilemma: being a distraction from our vocation or an occasion to recognize it and delve into it.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said it so brilliantly with his famous phrase: “The traveler who crosses a mountain in the direction of a star, runs the risk of forgetting which his guiding star is if he concentrates too exclusively on the climbing problems. If he only acts for action’s sake, he will get nowhere.”

In the deepest social crisis of the century in the continent, it is not easy to avoid the temptation of sinking deeply in problems, and it is urgent not to lose sight of that one and only star that guides each one of us towards the common good, in a personal way, spreading to communities and to societies.

Beyond all ideological positions and beliefs, we are together to work for the common good of our Motherland: Venezuela. A Mother (mater) begets, generates, she is origin and source, she is fertile as our land and welcomes everyone become a starting point for education, work, and progress; Patria (pater) is our heritage, the goods we have received as a heritage from our ancestors and it generates a unique culture.

We are travelers in our own mater-pater and the crisis we are experiencing is that great mountain that we must cross to continue in the direction of the star that guides us. However, even if we were to achieve a state of welfare, we would not necessarily be well; well-being does not meet with being well. We can see this in other countries where standards of living that are desirable for us have been conquered and, yet still, other kinds of problems persist.

The human being will go on in history, as a traveler flanking mountains, looking for that star to guide him. I will be able to continue working happily in such a problematic reality because that star will lighten all the mountains and cliffs that I have to cross, and for this, that very same star is the answer to my infinite desire for beauty, happiness, truth, and justice.