Ricardo Reis

Today (more like tonight, really) I will be talking about Ricardo Reis, who was, for those who don't know, one of Fernando Pessoa's heteronyms.
So, Ricardo Reis followed, among others, a life philosophy called Epicureanism. And what is this Epicureanism you might wonder? Well it basicaly means individual pleasure as a life goal, yet in a moderate way in order not to suffer with possible consequences. That's putting it simply because there's way more bullshit in between.
This same philosophy was present in some of Reis's poems pretty much like this:
He wrote to this girl, Lídia, whom he might possibily have something with, but due to his beliefs wouldn't. He wouldn't hold her hand or get involved in any way other than a platonic way because if he did and their feelings became real, when one day things between them went wrong they would suffer with it.
Well let me tell you what I think of it: down right bullshit.
Ricardo Reis was very much at peace with the though that he would one day die, but even so instead of living his life he would waste it with stupid beliefs such as these. What if they did suffer? What if it all went terribly wrong? At least it would have been better to have lived, and lived well. Ricardo Reis "was" an aristocrat (because as an heteronym he never really existed but in Fernando Pessoa's mind), he could have enjoyed everything so fully, with so little difficulties, yet he chose to sit by a river watching life pass by. All of it just to avoid suffering.
If that's not absolutely idiotic then I don't know what is.

Believe it or not all this talk wasn't for the purpose of bashing Ricardo Reis. It truly wasn't. There was a point I was trying to get at:
Everything we have we will one day lose. Ricardo Reis knew that. That's one thing I will give him credit for. And in the last few days that's been a sore spot for me.
I'm a positive person, a firm believer that we should enjoy everything for as little as it is. But there are times when things that had become good turn bad again, and everything feels even worse than it had first started as. In times such as those even I wish I could be like him, just put myself in a bubble where nothing could affect me, suffer no harm. And that's when I feel like the biggest hypocrite ever, because what moral do I have, really, when in darker times I'm just as eagger for a easy ride?
It get's me thinking about how wrong or right anything can really be, how fast we are to criticize.
I'm glad there is a middle ground.