Letters
To A Spanish Youngster CCXLI
[...]
Your
Honor of the great fire in the heart,
L'amour,
la tendresse, la gratitude que j'ai pour toi,*
dear human but also archangelical being, are so big that sometimes I
feel "desamparé... sans direction"*.
I
remember well my anguish every day after losing sight of You when You
were at my company's headquarters, high priestess... The writer
said*:
Chaque
foi que je te quitte, j'ai une angoisse et un tremblement au fond du
coeur. Où es-tu ? Où es-tu, mon amour ? Tu m'attends, n'est-ce pas,
comme je t'aatends, avec la même forte et longue fidélité, avec
crainte et certitude.
[Every
time that I leave you, I have an anguish and feel a tremor at the
bottom of my heart. Where are you ? Where are you, my love ? You are
waiting for me, aren't you, as I am waiting for you, with the same
strong and consistent loyalty, with fear and certainty.]
At
times, Tout
cela est stupide et n'a aucun sens*
(all is stupid and have no sense), dear master and absolute governor.
To lose You, to have no access to Your grace, Your Grace, is really
unfortunate and hurtful. If only You could write to me! [Vous]
ne peux pas savoir le bonheur que m'apporte la chère écriture.*
(You cannot know the happiness that the dear writing provides me
with.)
You,
mystical person of the highest qualities, are so high in the
hierarchy of human beings, that I cannot say, as the writer said,
"avec
toutes nos différences, nous sommes si semblables, si fraternels et
si complices (au beau sense du mot)"*.
On the contrary, we are really different, and very distant in the
cosmic order.
Even
with this belief, is it possible
que nou pouissons enfin nous appuyer l'un sur l'autre, vraiment ! Il
me semble qu'alors il n'y aurait pas de limite à mes forces. Et,
pour tout ce que je veux faire, j'ai besoin de forces sans limites
(we
may finally be able to lean on each other, really! It seems to me
that then there would be no limit to my strength. And, for everything
I want to do, I need strength with no limits.)*
After
re-reading this last paragraph, I think it is applicable to me what
Camus wrote, who said to his beloved*:
Tu
vois, je suis un incorrigible imbécile. [You see, I am an
incorrigible idiot],
:-)
My
person of the ҉
incomprehensibly wonderful members, incapable of being grasped with
the mind, hard even to look on ҉
,**
despite
the years already passed I cannot forget Your divine voice, graceful
movements, & treatment of the others.
Of
course the memories fade :-( , and have no longer Your sacred
words and laughter in a part of my brain from which to recall them
with ease, but even so, I feel at times I am right next to that
secret temple where encapsulated in gold we Your sad followers could
find the vibrations of air that You uttered so much time ago.
:-)
Your
spiritual attributes were so magical, Your Honor, that at times it
seems to me that just with a bit more effort I could recover those
air waves stored in the hidden shrine and hear Your voice again, as
if time didn't pass.
But
what I am saying? Obviously je
suis désorienté, bizarrement inapte, incapable de rien faire
(I'm disoriented, unfit in an indescribable way, unable to do
anything)*. In great part is my not having Your light in my life.
In
other part, I am sure that endogenous reasons would make me suffer
all the same, even if having everything I needed or wanted. Even if
You paid attention to me, my frail nature would be the source of
sufferings.
---
In
the human nature department, I wanted to share with You, my lord, these newspieces... Beyond what is diffcult to know and needs lots of
work (learning about our hospital surviving rates for surgery and
illnesses), we focus in the easy to process, things like how warm are
the nurses, or having hotel-like rooms†:
Abstract:
Consumer-driven health care is often heralded as a new quality
paradigm in medicine. However, patients-as-consumers face
difficulties in judging the quality of their medical treatment. With
a sample of 3,000 U.S. hospitals, we find that neither medical
quality nor patient survival rates have much impact on patient
satisfaction with their hospital. In contrast, patients are very
sensitive to the “room and board” aspects of care that are highly
visible. Quiet rooms have a larger impact on patient satisfaction
than medical quality, and communication with nurses affects
satisfaction far more than the hospital-level risk of dying.
Hospitality experiences create a halo effect of patient goodwill,
while medical excellence and patient safety do not. Moreover, when
hospitals face greater competition from other hospitals, patient
satisfaction is higher but medical quality is lower. Consumer-driven
health care creates pressures for hospitals to be more like hotels.
These findings lend broader insight into unintended consequences of
marketization.
The
second paper, summarized here, tells us that demagogues do not
mobilize the unconvinced, but coordinate the already prone to resort
to violence‡:
Abstract:
Large-scale mobilization is often accompanied by the emergence of
demagogic leaders and the circulation of unverified rumors,
especially if the mobilization happens in support of violent or
disruptive projects. In those circumstances, researchers and
commentators frequently explain the mobilization as a result of mass
manipulation. Against this view, evolutionary psychologists have
provided evidence that human psychology contains mechanisms for
avoiding manipulation and new studies suggest that political
manipulation attempts are, in general, ineffective. Instead, we can
understand decisions to follow demagogic leaders and circulate fringe
rumors as attempts to solve a social problem inherent to mobilization
processes: The coordination problem. Essentially, these decisions
reflect attempts to align the attention of individuals already
disposed for conflict.
To
close this letter, friend of the beautiful, and the honest, and of
what is good, I wish to show You some of what Don Denis of Portugal
wrote to his lady. Just a common case of unrequited love֍:
Prazmi a mí, senhor, de morrer, [Pláceme a mí, senhor, morir,
e prazm’ ende por vosso mal, y pláceme también por vuestro mal,
ca sei que sentiredes qual que sé que sentiréis tal
mingua vós, pois ei de fazer, mengua vos (pues así lo haré),
ca non perde pouco senhor porque no pierde poco la senhor
quando perde tal servidor cuando pierde tal servidor
qual perdedes en me perder. como el que vos perdéis al perderme.
E con mia mort’ ei eu prazer, Y con mi muerte tengo yo placer,
porque sei que vos farei tal porque sé que a vos haré tal
mingua qual fez omen leal, mengua, como la de un hombre leal,
o máis que podia seer todo lo más que se puede ser
a quen ama, pois morto for, por quien se ama, hasta la muerte,
e fostes vós mui sabedor porque supisteis vos
d’ eu por vós atal mort’ aver. que yo por vos tal muerte tendría.
E pero que ei de sofrer Y ya que he de sufrir
a morte mui descomunal una muerte tan descomunal,
con mia mort’ oimais non m’ én cal, con mi muerte desde hoy nada me importará,
por quanto vos quero dizer y por eso os quiero decir
ca meu serviç’ e meu amor que mi servicio y mi amor
seravos d’ escusar peior serán a vos de excusar peor
que a min d’ escusar viver. que a mí de excusar vivir.
E certo podedes saber Y ciertamente, podéis saber
que pero s’ o meu tempo sal que ya que mi tiempo se acaba
per morte, non á ja i al por la muerte, y ya nada importa,
que me non quer’ end’ eu doer, y no me quiero de ello doler,
porque a vós farei maior porque a vos haré mayor
mingua que fez Nostro Senhor mengua que la que hizo Nuestro Señor
de vassal’ a senhor prender. cuando a este vasallo arrancó de su senhor.]
(senhor
= the lady)
Rien,
rien n'a plus de sens pour moi,
Your Honor... Je
ne sais plus vivre.*
Yours
faithfully
a.
r. ante Su Señoría
--
Notes
*
Albert Camus & Maria Casarès's Correspondance. Paris: Gallimard,
2017. Page 109; 109; 103; 97; 96; 92; 92; 92; 89; 98.
**
enūma eliš ("When Above," or "The Marduk Exaltation
Poem," or "The Babylonian Creation Epic"), tablet I,
adapted from the ETANA webpage, digital version at
http://www.etana.org/node/581.
†
Patients
as Consumers in the Market for Medicine: The Halo Effect of
Hospitality. Cristobal Young, Xinxiang Chen. Social Forces, soaa007,
February 13 2020,
https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2020/02/quiet-rooms-have-larger-impact-on.html
‡
The
Evolutionary Psychology of Mass Mobilization: How Disinformation and
Demagogues Coordinate Rather Than Manipulate. Michael Bang Petersen.
Current Opinion in Psychology, February 20 2020.
https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2020/02/we-got-psychological-defenses-against.html
Highlights
• Violent
mobilization is often attributed to manipulation from, for example,
demagogues.
• The
human mind contains psychological defenses against manipulation, also
in politics.
• Mass
mobilization requires that the attention of group members is
coordinated.
• Demagogues
and disinformation can be explained as tools for achieving
coordination.
• Mobilized
individuals are predisposed for conflict rather than manipulated into
conflict.
֍
Adapted from María Gimena del Rio Riande's Cantigas del rey Don
Denis. In "Un libro oscuro. 105 poemas negros". Buenos
Aires: Bajo la luna, 2012.
https://www.aacademica.org/gimena.delrio.riande/135
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