Last week he invited me to the tribute that the City of Bilbao pays every year to the “teachers” who retire. Among the quotation marks I have written to this teacher, the term that the mayor used time and time again in his speech. But I have not been a teacher, although it can be said that for several years I played the role of a teacher. I am a graduate and have worked almost all my life as a teacher, having had students of all ages in the Basque Country, in the university, in the school, in the high school and in the last twenty years in Irale.

My father often told me in the last few years of my life: “Son, I don’t know what I do, but I don’t have time for anything.” I laughed at him, but now I understand him perfectly, because I also have the same experience as the honorees we went from Elementary and High School, all therefore teachers. That was the term that the mayor, professor, had to use. However, it seems that the use of a teacher allows us to speak softer, more sweetly, as we imagine children. In any event, Mr President, I would like to thank the Commission and the Council for their work. Mayor stated a resounding truth: it is more difficult to educate than to teach. Teachers, including teachers, have to teach, but we also have to educate ourselves, especially when it comes to children. Education is a shared work with parents and society in general. That's what I thought as I listened to the mayor. I thought that, as opposed to what I was a child, the parents of now tend to take away all the authority from the teachers, making almost competition between them what common work should be. And as a result, among other things, that days with children and young people have to be much more difficult than then for teachers, and that they have/have a well-deserved small tribute.

There were several media that wanted to make the event known. It was exactly three: a radio, a newspaper and a TV, and the three of us were there, almost a hundred people, and I was chosen to talk about the retired experience. What a strange thing! While I was speaking directly on the radio, I came up with what my father often said to me in the last few years of my life: “Son, I don’t know what I do, but I don’t have time for anything.” I laughed at him, but now I understand him better than good, because the same thing happens to me as well.

I do nothing special, but the time is very busy: walking, coffee, looking at newspapers, shopping, home things, working on the computer (that can't be missed! )… and of course go to theatre, cinema, etc. That said, I have no time at all. That's right, I do it all without stress, and that's priceless. The other day I read a nice article from Elvira Lindo, “it is the older women who fill the cafeterias, cinemas, theatres and all kinds of cultural events.” I'm not an old woman, but I'm an old man. Oh my God!