culture – Page 7 – The Life and Times of Ben Weinberg

Lagos and Praia da Dona Ana

Camera: iPhone 12

Location: Lagos, the Algarve, Portugal (Praia da Dona Ana)

Nazaré

Camera: iPhone 12

Location: Nazaré, Portugal

Palmela

Camera: iPhone 12

Location: Palmela, Portugal

Wineries of Setubal

Camera: iPhone 12

Location: Setubal, Portugal

The Case Against Hyper-Individualism

“You can be an individualistic person but that does not excuse selfish or amoral behavior at all.”

It is not inherently bad to look out for yourself and your own interests. How many times have you heard that you have to “be a better friend to yourself” or to “take care of yourself?” If you can’t help yourself, then how can you help others out? The key thing to keep in mind with being individualistic is that while it can help you as a person, you should always remember that it does not mean neglecting, hurting, or disadvantaging others in the process. You can be an individualistic person but that does not excuse selfish or amoral behavior at all.

I would argue that hyper-individualism has become more and more common in our society and has led to people being taken advantage of, scammed, lied to, or otherwise mistreated because they had someone take advantage of them because they were acting in their own interest but without regards for others who were affected. If I had to give my own definition of what distinguishes hyper-individualism from individualism is that in the former, you are looking out for yourself only without regards for others or you are looking out for yourself even if it may cause other people to be negatively affected by your focus on individualistic behavior.

While it is okay in my view to strive to achieve your own goals, seek out a better life, find your own path, and to not be dependent on others if you can afford to do so. It is not okay to hurt others in the process by robbing them of their own goals, their own chance at seeking a better life, and even preventing them from building a community where the individual takes a back seat to the interests of a group.

I find that hyper-individualism is similar to a ‘dog eat dog’ kind of world where everybody is on their own all the time, there is limited or no support if you fall on tough times, and where communal living or community-building is sacrificed for individual power seeking, wealth gaining, or prestige building. Caring about oneself alone and not others at all or not caring if your own goals, success, and overall happiness may put others in a bad place can also fall under what hyper individualism would be to me.

I believe that most people cannot be hyper individualistic because since the early days of our species, we could not live on our own without the support of a tribe, group, or a small community. Everybody had their own individual wants, desires, or needs, but we worked together to achieve those needs by catering to our individual strengths. Each person brought something unique or useful to the larger group and that is where individualism can play a healthy role within a community. If you can hunt, you can provide food to yourself, yes, but also to others if you are good at what you do. If you can fish, you can fish enough to help yourself but also for others in the tribe too. The same could be said for cooking, cleaning, protecting livestock, building shelter, etc.

This kind of individualism where we express ourselves in what we do best and how we can contribute meaningfully to a larger group, community, or society helps to make individualism a powerful force, often for good. Where hyper-individualism goes wrong is where you only look out for yourself and don’t share with anybody else or lend a helping hand with your skills and talents. It is not good to hoard or be greedy but that is what hyper individualistic behavior is based around and the disturbing thing to remember is that it seems to be encouraged more and more by our popular culture.

Think about the advertising and marketing messages we often receive: do they cater to your needs or to the needs of a group? When society is largely telling you to constantly be going after the money, the cars, the clothes, and the fancy mansions, this kind of behavior often leads to hyper-individualism. Sadly, we don’t hear about how we can use our skills to help others or to volunteer to use our resources for a shared good or effort. It is up to us to resist hyper individualistic behavior as much as possible.

Hyper-individualism may make that person feel good at first, but it is an empty feeling especially if they are not contributing anything meaningful to the larger society. Yes, you were able to buy a nice car, a flashy television, and an expensive house, but while that’s good for you and your own skills and abilities, is that all there is to your life? For a few of us, maybe that’s good enough, but I believe that we feel happiest and most fulfilled when we not only share our talents with the world, but we use those talents to also better the world in some way.

Individualistic societies and more community-focused societies can both be wealthy, happy, and productive, but if you go to the extremes of individualism or to communism, to state the obvious, societies will often crater in on themselves and cease to function well. I like to think that the best societies in our world are those that recognize, encourage, and foster individual talent but to use that talent to create a better society and to make sure that success while rewarded financially or otherwise, is also meant to help others receive a helping hand up so they too can also succeed and pursue their individual dreams and goals.

My analogy for hyper-individualism is if you’re in a rowboat and you have six people in the boat, and we’re all meant to row to get to the shore. Problems can start to arise when you have five people rowing in sync together and starting to move the boat faster and faster to the shore. However, if that sixth person does not row at all because he or she does not want to or if they want to row back out to sea, all six people as a result are going to suffer together because of that one person’s hyper-individualism.

Think of that rowboat of six people like a society of a million or a billion people. If you have one person or a few people ‘rowing’ against the others and hurting the total society as a result, the problems even a few people can cause would affect everyone in that boat or in the society negatively. Let’s all remember that we all rise or fall together and that while individual success, wealth, and prestige, is admirable to achieve, it is not everything in life and we are judged not just by our own merits but by our character and our values as well in society.

Welcome to Lisbon

Camera: iPhone 12

Location: Lisbon, Portugal

It Feels Good to Do Good

“The good work we do whether it’s volunteering, donating, or contributing to society in our job or a non-paid effort can not only improve the state of the world in a measurable way but also make us feel good in the process.”

It can be disconcerting to make sense of how little is within our control and how much we would like to have the world be different than it is. Whether its politics, culture, the environment, or society in general, our lack of control over these forces that have a massive impact on our lives can be difficult to make sense of. Even when we do our best to make positive change in the world, it may only cause what I have previously referred to as a ‘ripple effect.’ However, we don’t realize that not only does the good we do ripple out in the world in a small yet powerful way, but we become the better for it as a result.

The good work we do whether it’s volunteering, donating, or contributing to society in our job or a non-paid effort can not only improve the state of the world in a measurable way but also make us feel good in the process. Other people in our lives may or may not know about these contributions that we make whether it’s with our physical labor, our financial resources, or just a caring thought or gesture but if we are the ones making the effort, we should take the time to recognize its significance and the beauty of the act itself.

It does not hurt to pat yourself on the back metaphorically for showing up and doing your part. I don’t believe it is egotistical or detrimental to your self-esteem to recognize that you are taking time or money to do something good in the world. While you should not expect others to be so forthcoming in their adulation or praise of what your contribution means, you should feel good about helping others or helping nature or just being kind and caring towards your fellow man or woman.

If you feel like you’re in a rut, I truly believe volunteering some time out of your busy schedule and working towards a goal in that kind of volunteer work can really cheer you up and make you feel a bit better about the world. So much these days is out of our own control in an increasingly technologically driven, lightning-fast world where we do not have as much time to slow down and focus on what really matters, which is to leave the world better than you found it.

The work can be hard, disappointing, and even cause you to question whether it is worth your time or money but hold true to the reason why you got into doing work for the betterment of others in the first place. While it is considered a selfless act to volunteer or to donate or to work for others, do not let yourself forget that it feels good to do good and you’ll often be better off for having done that work even if it was difficult, thankless, or draining to you mentally or physically.

Having that sense of control, to work hard towards a specific goal, and to feel better for having stuck with your good work to its end are all ways that can make us feel good about doing good. People all need to feel that sense of self-worth and to have that self-esteem be boosted a bit and that can come with taking the time or money or both to contribute to the betterment of the world around you. While time and money are precious resources for which we tightly hold onto at times, perhaps too much so, it is without question a good use of time and/or money to help those people out who are less fortunate than you are.

Only you can decide how much of either precious resource, time or money, that you would like to contribute as a volunteer but I promise that whatever you decide to take upon you in terms of doing good, you can guarantee that whatever effort or work you put in will pay you back in the most beautiful way in that sense of satisfaction and contentedness you can get from healing the world or helping a person or contributing to a social cause you care about a lot.

The work involved will be difficult and you will need to put in hours, days, and sometimes months or years to see the fruit of your labor lead to the good you sought to come about as a result. The blood, sweat, and the tears you put in may not seem worth it but if you work in a group or a team with other committed people who care about the same good work that you do, not only will it be easier, but it will be done quicker.

During the good work you do, make sure to keep reminding yourself that results will take time, that you have your goals clearly in mind as to why you’re contributing to do good in the first place, and to remember that you may not get praise from others but that your own satisfaction and happiness from contributing will be most powerful as it comes from within you. We only have so much time to volunteer and to do some good on our own terms so make sure you think deeply about how you want to contribute and why you’re contributing to that cause.

Other people, even friends and family, may question why you are dedicating your time and/or your money to the good work you’re doing, but you do not need their approval to go forward with reaching your goals. You only need to deeply internalize that doing good will make not only you feel good about it but the people or environment or our world, which will be better off as a result. If you have to justify why you did the work you did, don’t look to other people to confirm your righteousness but rather look within yourself in your heart to see what you contributed was needed, that you had the skills or the knowledge to help out, and that the impact you made was measurable and that it could ‘ripple’ out through the society and the entire world.

U.S. National Arboretum

Camera: iPhone 12

Location: United States National Arboretum; Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Four Days In San Juan (A Travel Guide)

“San Juan is an excellent destination for a long weekend or for a longer holiday depending on your preference. I do believe that at least three to four days is necessary to enjoy what San Juan has to offer.”

San Juan is an excellent destination for a long weekend or for a longer holiday depending on your preference. I do believe that at least three to four days is necessary to enjoy what San Juan has to offer. Puerto Rico is more than just San Juan, but it is good to just start out with getting to know the capital city of this United States territory. I have various recommendations to focus on during your stay and there are still some places that I would check out for which I was not able to visit personally. Not only is San Juan a fun city but the weather in the Winter and Spring months will make you want to come back in the future.

Visit The Beaches – On your 1^st day in San Juan, I recommend checking out a beach or two to relax, enjoy the sunshine, go swimming, or even go windsurfing with the help of a guide especially if you had a long flight coming in. There are beaches that cater more to tourists such as Condado Beach, which are close to different resorts and hotels that are right on the beach within walking distance.

Condado Beach can be a bit crowded depending on the time of the year that you visit it, but it is clean, compact, and has enough chairs and umbrellas to go around if you decide to rent one. Personally, I prefer Ocean Park Beach, which is further from Old San Juan and the Condado Neighborhood, but for which is more local, laidback, and is likely to have less tourists. If you decide to split your beach days up, I recommend going to Ocean Park Beach the 1^st day if it is closer to where you’re staying and then going over to Condado to explore the neighborhood and to visit that beach on your 3^rd day in San Juan.

Other beach options in San Juan include Balneario del Escambron, El Alambique Beach, and Playa (Beach) del Capitolio, one of the great things about San Juan is that the neighborhoods that have a beach are quite walkable and are accessible to the public. While the hotels take up a lot of real estate and have their own areas of the beach for their guests only, each beach is still accessible to the public even if they are not staying nearby, which makes visiting multiple beaches during your four days in San Juan a good way to spend your vacation time there.

Enjoy Nearby Nature – El Yunque National Rainforest is the only tropical rainforest in the United States National Forest System. There are hundreds of unique animal, bird, and plant species that call El Yunque home as well, making it must-see. While not in San Juan, it is only a 45 minute to an hour drive away. While I would not recommend an Uber to get there and back, it would be wise to hire a taxi to get to and from the rainforest to avoid paying for parking there. You can also join a tour group, large or small, to get there without splurging. Rental cars are also available that your hotel can arrange for you or that can be given at the San Juan airport. If you visit the rainforest, be sure to leave earlier in the morning so that your hike through El Yunque won’t be delayed by packs of tourists wanting to stop for selfies on the way up to the waterfalls.

However, you choose to get there, you will enjoy the beautiful, quiet, and peaceful nature of the rainforest. It is the largest protected forest in the country and where you can really enjoy hiking, swimming, and even doing rock climbing if you choose to. Parts of El Yunque also have natural pools where you can jump in from meters above or use a rope swing in certain areas. One area that I went to have a naturally formed waterslide with a smooth area of rock formation allowing you to slide down without hurting yourself.

Having a guide there will teach you a lot about the flora and fauna that inhabit El Yunque as well as the kinds of frogs, fish, birds, monkeys, etc. that call the rainforest home there. A trip to El Yunque would not be complete without stopping off for some fresh coffee or some fresh fruits or fried empanadas at a road stand where they wake up at the crack of dawn to start getting the produce ready. In between beach days, I highly recommend spending a full day at El Yunque to enjoy a bit of nature outside San Juan.

Eat, Drink, and Dance – I love Salsa dancing and if you enjoy salsa music as I do, going to San Juan will allow you to indulge in some live dancing even on a weeknight! Old San Juan has many salsa bars and clubs along with for bachata and reggaeton if you prefer those music genres instead. My go to place would be La Factoria, which has been ranked among the Top 100 bars in the world. It’s not only known for its old school décor, six unique bars within a main bar, as well as its live Salsa bands playing most nights, but its cocktail drinks are fantastic and reasonably priced.

La Factoria has a very relaxed vibe, and the bartenders are friendly enough to give you their favorite drink recommendation. While the Salsa live music does not start until 10 PM, it doesn’t take long for the dance floor to be filled with people from Puerto Rico and all over the world who enjoy this fun genre of music. Puerto Rico is the home of many famous Salsa musicians including my favorite, Hector Lavoe. If you come to San Juan, I highly recommend this bar to visit and make sure to bring your friends or family with you!

For dancing and drinking good cocktails, San Juan has a lot of options and that is also the case with its food scene. As the capital, there are several good restaurants to check out with not just Puerto Rican cuisine but also seafood, pizza, and burgers available. My recommendations to check out would first be Kasalta, a famous bakery that even former President Barack Obama visited in his trip to San Juan. Kasalta is known for its sandwiches, local cuisine, but especially its desserts including its Tres Leches cake.

Other recommendations for dinner are La Cueva Del Mar, where they are known for their delicious fish tacos, and I would recommend the shrimp arepa as a starter dish. Lastly, while I am a native New Yorker, the best Pizza place in San Juan may be Pirilo Pizza Rustica, where the island’s influence extends to the pizza where you can order a delicious pizza pie with sweet plantains and shredded beef. It’s a good option for having a nice beer to go with your pizza and has outdoor seating as well to enjoy your meal with a cool breeze from the ocean. Lastly, for the coffee drinkers out there, you must go to La Coffeetera, with excellent coffee to stay or to go before hitting the beach with excellent paninis including one with egg, sausage, and cheese. It’s a great way to start one of your days in San Juan without question.

Explore Old San Juan – No four days in San Juan is complete without spending some time in old San Juan, which is well preserved with its colorful houses, trendy shops, and beautiful murals that capture your attention. While it is nice to shop around in old San Juan, the main draw for me going there was to check out the famous and historic San Felipe del Morro Castle or Castillo. It’s right on the edge of the old part of the city leading into San Juan Bay, which juts out into the Atlantic Ocean. It is a very strategic point and one that exchange hands for centuries going under the control the Spanish Empire, the Puerto Ricans, and now the United States since the 1500s. It is a massive castle and one that is well worth a few hours with all the information to read and parts of the fort to explore.

San Felipe del Morro Castle is not only great for its history but has some great vantage points to see the coastline of San Juan, to see the bay in its full view, and to see the rest of the old city as well. You can really appreciate how much the island has changed in five hundred years but also see that not much has changed as well. If I had more time during my four days, I would have gone to see Castillo San Cristobal, which while younger than San Felipe del Morro, having been constructed during the late 1700’s, is still the largest of any fort ever built in the Americas including the one in Cartagena, Colombia.

To cap off the four days and to really enjoy old San Juan, I would recommend visiting Scryer Rum Barrelhouse and Rooftop for drinks to end your trip to the city. It has an excellent, spacious rooftop, with a pleasant overview of one of the old San Juan’s most bustling streets. You can get the Scryer rum brand that is only made in San Juan and is not exported currently and it’s good to mix with a cocktail or have a beer after at the impressive three-story bar. You’ll be glad to have a refreshing rum drink after a day of seeing the historic Spanish forts and walking the cobbled streets of the old city.

In terms of four days in San Juan, I hope you will follow the recommendations I have laid out but don’t be afraid to add or subtract other activities to bring to your own itinerary. I believe there are a lot of ways to spend time in San Juan and what I laid out is just a sampling of what the Puerto Rican capital can offer you. It is one of my favorite destinations for a short trip and since it was only four days total, you know I’ll be back for another visit soon! For a short getaway, you can’t go wrong with going to San Juan!