I've regularly suggested that - to be able to live in and enjoy Spain - you have to take on board that the primeordinate goal of the Spanish is to have fun. Naturally enough, then, much is sacrificed to this goal. Time-keeping and planning, for example. Plus, for many, any attempt at deep thought or participation in heavy cultural events. Or even just reading. And one constant aspect is that the Spanish live in what I've labelled the 'here-and-now', giving much less consideration to the future than many others. As a result, Spanish society is less anal and more informal than elsewhere. Or, as I keep putting it, more sane.

But don't take my word for it. Here's a translation of an article in today's Voz de Galicia by Fernando Ónega:-

An old British tale – reflecting English phlegm – tells of a lord who was going away for the weekend. After he’d loaded the car, he looked behind and saw a fire. It was his mansion. Realising the flames were beyond control, he got in his car, set off and said to himself “I’m really going to feel bad come Monday.”

The Spanish are something like this. Yesterday, as has been customary for months, the news fell on us like flames. It began with a Survey of the Active Population, which told us that in the second quarter of the year 200,000 people lost their jobs. Then came the Council of Ministers, lowering everything: this year we will grow less than forecast and next year even less. Nonetheless, the Traffic Ministry advised that over this long weekend [for many the start of their holidays] there will be six million displacements on the roads. At midday, I attended a lunch with a group of economists who made this diagnosis – All the large stores and supermarkets are losing businesses. The only sector which is surviving is travel agencies. It left me asking whether we haven’t become rather like the English lord.

The Spanish – naturally – see the flames. Their reactions are more or less as follows:- The crisis is important but taking a break is sacrosanct; I could make a sacrifice for myself but I can’t do this to my children. Last year’s shoes will last another year but the holidays can’t wait. I can’t go to the flat of the last few years nor to the hotel where I’d made a reservation, but isn’t a few days in my village really the best way to relax? And so we have the contradiction of a grave economic situation and a citizenry which insists on maintaining the same quality of life.

What’s certain is that Spain is full of people who have decided to postpone feeling bad until Monday. They have set their priorities and have chosen to enjoy the immediate moment, following the advice of the Romans “Live for the moment”* . To do without whatever, to forget about luxuries and ostentation but to live for the moment.

For this reason the tourism sector is safe from the general debacle. And for this reason there are places in Spain where the hotels are full. And it’s for this reason that our villages are experiencing an unexpected vitality, as places of welcome for those returning with apparent nostalgia.

God knows, but the Monday of the Englishman could well arrive in September.

Of course, it's a lot easier to live the Spanish way when the economy is booming away, regardless of the flimsiness of its foundations. But, as Ónega hints, we're about to find out how different things are when it isn't. I guess it will be a particular shock for those who've never known anything but fat cow years since their teens. And who could well be in their 30s by now. Which is rather as thing are in the UK too. Though finding the time and money for fun has always been rather tougher there.


* Carpe diem, I guess.