There’s something very strange about the fact that in English we cannot express something like gozo without saying I. The fact that the I is implicit in the form of the verb gives the soul of a Spanish speaker a very different dimension of the experience. I enjoy, I speak, I walk, I live are very different to gozo, habla, camino, vivo. It is inevitable less self centered than I enjoy, I speak…
The fact that gozo implies that I enjoy but is not explicit about it, allows me to feel that there’s something rather general about it, wonderfully general, like a “state” of joy to which I am a part but that that state of joy is in itself an even more objective reality than my self. I enjoy, I speak, seems to center around the I more than the act while gozo, hablo, centers around the act more than the individuality. A very different emotion and experience is connected with the words.
In the US this “I am”"I do” is very active while in England the I is less emphatic and the “could” and “would” soften it a great deal: could I come with you? Would you like me to work here? I would like to come, I would very much enjoy it…
I heard an English lady in an interview the other day and she said, “the lady gives very extreme examples that might work in America but England is different” talking about the woman who pays drug-addicts to get a vasectomy. I immediately realized that she was talking about the particular subjectivity of the people in each country. I also understood why it is very difficult for American or Europeans to take my language. There is something about how the language is spoken that will not help people understand each other and together with the kind of language a whole different approach to life is contained in it and that also makes it very difficult for people from different nations to understand each other. Only when we’re able to go beyond our nationalities into a more objective human reality, will we be able to communicate with each other. This cannot happen by itself, we must want it to happen and make it happen. New generations through the internet might some day come closer to that when they actually meet.
We live such different lives. The people in Medellín where I live, live inhuman lives. Women and men are killed easily by the men they owe money to for a hundred or two hundred dollars so that others become afraid and pay. Teenagers are killed by older teenagers if they are a little too strong so that they won’t be the ones killing them when they get old enough. The gang leaders are so because they’ve killed the most people.
People are killed everyday in miserable crimes and the news don’t even talk about them. The politicians are corrupt and so is most everybody else with power connections. The few who are not are counted and quickly taken care of by the sicarios, the teenage hired killers.
People are killed everyday in miserable crimes and the news don’t even talk about them. The politicians are corrupt and so is most everybody else with power connections. The few who are not are counted and quickly taken care of by the sicarios, the teenage hired killers.
There is tremendous suffering in this country. The inhumanity and absurdity of things is experienced daily. The ignorance, the human poverty, the fear of the people and the hopelessness.
When will we start working seriously towards a more human world?
The effort is the same but the reward much more dignified.
The suffering is as much but the quality of life much more genuine.
The effort is the same but the reward much more dignified.
The suffering is as much but the quality of life much more genuine.
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