Monday. 6:45 in the morning. The alarm rings. You don't even know your own name. Quick. Shower, coffee, toothbrush. You are sliding into the day. 7:16. You just missed the bus right in front of your nose. You have time for a cigarette while you wait for the next one. The bus is packed with people. You have to stand. You try not to fall asleep. You glance at your phone from time to time. You arrive at Moncloa, Line 3. More people. Long faces. Infinite scrolling, deafening silence. Speed. You get to work, greet people, chat a little about the weekend. Anddddddddd… another morning without stopping to think. And that is how the days go by. The weeks, the months…

Shall I tell you the truth? I love newsletters. Because they are a place where one can stop, think, and reflect more calmly. But without being too tiresome. Stopping and reflecting are two concepts that sum up very well what we did last week, celebrating the II Teambuilding of TheNomba (and no, it was not a postmodern teambuilding, like the one Fabrice mentioned in El Despertar). Two days of stopping, escaping the noise and routine to think better: where do we come from? where are we going? what is our mission? It has been a gift to see to what extent TheNomba is helping so many people, and indeed we are already more than 600 students in over 35 countries. I leave you with the photo of everyone on the team, so you can start putting faces to our names.

Team photo (we are all here except for two: one who has just become a father and another who got married just recently).

This March, a metaphor came to mind that my Medieval History professor used to cite a lot—which is not his—and which in turn was popularized by Newton—and was not his either—and it turns out actually belongs to Bernard of Chartres: “we are dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants”. In my house, in March we celebrate two very important events: my father's birthday (this year he turned 60) and his day, the 19th. It is a month in which all the siblings and nieces and nephews gather. Sunday after-dinner conversations, family gatherings, endless chats. I love it. At TheNomba we reached the conclusion that the best gift is not bought, it is shared, and that is what we decided to call the Father's Day campaign, starring Óscar the father and Óscar the son, both students of TheNomba. We ended up with a very homemade, simple, and warm video. You'll have to tell me what you think of it.

I have no idea about this newsletter thing and in general I have written very little, so let's see if this experiment turns out well. The idea is that I will tell you relevant things about the month: news, events, things that have made me think, the occasional anecdote… In short, a monthly space for reflection. Just like the one we had a few days ago with Gonzalo Rodríguez, at the III TheNomba in-person event. We talked about rootlessness, culture, globalism, traditions, genealogy, comfort, and spiritual discipline… A true journey through the historical identity of our civilization. A group of people in a neighborhood bookstore on a March afternoon listening to a guy with a white beard who looks like a hippie? I'll tell you right now, guaranteed success. Success too was the live broadcast we had with Enric Gel - Adictos a la Filosofía a couple of weeks ago, which you can also enjoy on YouTube.

Gonzalo explaining History (the one on the left is Óscar the father).

In April we will have an in-person meeting with Rod Dreher, an impressive American journalist and writer. If you are a student and you are in Madrid, we look forward to seeing you. If you can't make it because life is complicated and you have to renew your ID card, don't worry, get ready for the next online live broadcast we will have with José María Torralba during the month of April. Hey, are you also impressed with the allies we have at TheNomba, or is it just me?

On another note, things have happened this month that, if you stop for a second, are not easy to process. On one hand, the conflict between Israel and Iran continues unabated. Attacks, responses, threats, escalation… the usual, but with a different feeling: as if it were getting easier and easier to cross a line that previously seemed distant. And meanwhile, here we carry on with our routine pretty much intact, as if they were two worlds that never quite touch.

And then there is Noelia's case. I imagine you have heard about it. A 25-year-old girl who has spent almost two years fighting in court to be able to decide about her own life, and who is finally going to receive euthanasia. I have listened to some of her interviews these days, and there is a phrase that stuck with me: she just wants to stop suffering. And I don't really know what to think about that. Because these are issues where it is easy to form a quick opinion, but when you stop and look closer, what appears is not a clear answer, but something more uncomfortable: Who wouldn't want to stop suffering?

While all this happens, we continue on autopilot. And perhaps that is why it is worth, if only once a month, stopping for a moment and truly looking.

I'll say goodbye until the last Thursday of April!