A planned city--Brasilia

Two Wednesdays ago, I went to Brasilia—the capital of Brazil. I explored a little bit of the city, including a visit to “The Lúcio Costa Space,” where I saw the miniature plan of Brasilia, which is shaped like an airplane, and learned more about its planner, Lúcio Costa. I visited the heaven-pointing building that is one of the emblematic buildings of Brasilia—-The Metropolitan Cathedral of Brasilia, which was designed by Oscar Niemeyer. I relished in the sight of “The four evangelists,” a complex sculpture depicting the apostles: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I took a picture with my favorite apostle of the four: Luke. I can’t fully articulate why Luke is my favorite classic apostle (Paul is my favorite of all the people that can be considered apostles)--maybe it has to do with his being a physician and his attention to detail in accounting events. I then went inside the cathedral, moved as any Christian would be, by the sculptures and paintings. As I was coming out of the cathedral, a woman was sitting by the entrance to the cathedral, asking for some financial help. Her choice of location to ask for help shows her wisdom, because I could not imagine how I would come out of a cathedral and then ignore an old woman's request for money--assuming I had money on me to begin with, which I did, as I am sure most visitors did. Her age alone was reason enough to fight most reasons one might have for denying her. Then add the location factor and her request seemed, to me, undeniable. While she received money from many people, it seemed we, as a people, could still always say no.

During my trip to Brasilia, I also attended the wedding of the friend of a friend, hung out and watched movies with some very interesting people, ate the best brownie I have ever had in my life, made new friends, and came back to Belo Horizonte a few days later.

That is it for now.


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