Dark Night of the Soul

Então eu comprei um livro de poesia espanhola do século XV. E dentro eu encontro um poema estranhamente familiar... Onde eu já vi isso antes? Ah, mas é claro! A tradução inglesa desse poema é uma música da Loreena Mckennitt!
Essa não foi a única surpresa do dia... A mais divertida foi quando eu tive a impressão que, se pegasse o ônibus, ia encontrar uma flor para dar de presente para alguém. E, lo and behold!, dentro do ônibus havia mesmo uma moça com flores. Ela me disse que encontrou elas na rua, depositadas sobre uma mureta. E me deu uma, que usei como presente de desculpas. Parece que a minha intuição continua funcionando muito bem!

O noche que güiaste!
O noche amable más que la alborada!
O noche que juntaste
amado con amada,
amada en el amado transformada!

O night that was my guide!
O night more loving than the rising sun
O night that joined the loved
with the beloved one
Tranforming each of them into the other.

(Dark Night of the Soul - ou Cántico Espiritual de San Juan de la Cruz)

But he needed help most desperatly

Snow fell. What else can I say? They waited for days for the storm to be over. By day - day? As dark as that was it day? - they played games in the floor. Chess, dames, cards. You could see each had a different way of playing it. Karyn was pacient, Fren could know what the others were thinking (and it turned to be highly advantageous for him) Haccu thought himself as a good observer but was rash, Foxy was surprisingly pacient, waiting for the right moment to play. But the big winner was always Hoshy, the better lier of them all.
By night, which seemed to be most of the time, they heard stories and songs. And felt cold the wind that came from between the wooden boards. Gwich was a master-storyteller, with expressions and all in a frightful composition of emotions. She could weave terrible moods and disperse them - as it is the storytellers manner - in one word and instant.


This is not just. This is not fair.
Welcome.

- Don't you want to come and see, the library of all? The knowledge that is stored in these walls and books?
- No, I prefer to play in the grass. To me, these books are all vanity.

He spended most of his life trying to be like the others, trying to be normal. He pretended he had friends, and that he was young, and that he could say foolish things. He wished to be just like them. He wished most desperatly to like and love like everyone else.
- He was of an age where he should be taking care of himself. But he needed help most desperatly.

Criatividade e Educação

Um video que merece ser visto, mesmo que longo. É uma apresentação sobre Educação e Criatividade. Fantástico!
Link
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The price of a Life

- And who are you? - said Falkwer
- I am the one that created you. I work day and night for your food. I make you chairs. I destroy my hands wih the hard work of the forges for you.
- What can I do for you? Are you here to destroy me?
The figure smiled. Gently you could say. Gods, Falkwer, they don't come to destroy what they have created
- What can you do for us, how can you repay us for the life we lost? Live. Be what you must be. Be you to the fullest.
- Be the Chosen One Falkwer - said Haccu, who could not help giving names to things unamed - We chose you. We want you to become our saviour. We need you to become what you must be.
- You all hate me for what I've done.
They forgave you Falkwer.
Go on and live for them. Live for their freedom.
He fell. He broke. He felt ashamed as ashamed as he had been.
- Im sorry. I had no... No, I had idea. Idea enough of what I was doing! Yet I looked away. It is the shame; now I feel it to the fullest, to the brim. I don't think I can bear it anymore. It is this shame that I knew I couldn't bear if I looked in the way of all who needed me.

The Last Conversation of Fren & Lucio

- I have to tell you something. I don't think I'll ever tell them this, so please listen with attention. You might just be the last person to hear this story... Or rather, this confession:
You know the incident that brought me here... You remember me telling it. My confession doesn't concern its autencity. It did occur. Not exactly regret either. Regret would be a relief! What I have is doubt. I don't believe in what they believe
- But you saw the god - said Lucio, unable to contain himself anymore.
- I did. I did. I saw the light, the magnificent light. And what I have here to tell you is not based in anything concrete, it is merely a suspicion. And yet, it breaks all my faith... I must tell you, even if I lack any confirmation - or denial - of the incident. Much lately this suspicion came. Later, after the happening in the cave... When I fell down there I found the perfect ice, inside the perfect cave of haze and cold. It was beautiful. As I stood up, this sheet glowed in a soft purple light, a light that came from inside the world! Can I explain it? It was a feeling. Of silence, of repose. It all was still. The snow surrounded the ice-mirror in an organized manner; you could almost think somebody had set up he scenery before, so perfect it was.
- And you saw the god?
- And I saw, through the perfect purple light, the god. A figure coming out of the cave's face. A great shade that looked at me. That chose me. It disappeared when Myshba came to rescue me, and the boy then asked me what had I seen. I told him this and he said it was a god, as the god of light that visited him.
- And where lies your suspicion?
- Alas! Had I thought of it before! In the moment I was surprised, I was unsettled, but never suspicious. So I let it grow, the belief of me as a Chosen One. They believed it and so did I. You can almost say that they chose me, electing me as the leader by what happened at the cave. And so I was certain for a time, supported by their trust. But the night we spent at Gwich's house... it came to me, the suspicion.
- And what was it?
- As I have already told you, I didn't profess any belief in gods, at least not until some weeks ago, in the beginning of winter. Or better, I had no thought of the supernatural before coming to the company of these children. Then I believed. Now I have lost my Faith. No, I haven't lost it. Part of me suffers of the need to believe, to be like them. But part of me simply can't tolerate to be - strange choice of words! - deceived anymore.
- It is worst not to be sure than to not believe altogether! - sentenced Lucio - But continue.
- As I said, that night at the cave... I had just fallen some levels inside the ground. I could be hallucinating. I could have induced myself to see things. But these are not strong arguments, I know. I saw the light and the figure that spoke to me in the ice. The figure... I have no adjectives to describe it, unless, perhaps, 'the figure that we called god'. And there is a certain psychological irony in it. What is a god? What are the gods of ancients? We talked of it. I can't say it was a vision that came from pain. I have seen something in he cave, that is for certain. I saw someone, as I said, looking at me from the ice mirror.

- Then...
- If I had any confirmation, I would be in peace. I just suspect.
- How about the powers?
- Perhaps we always had them. Just waiting for the correct psychological situation to be unleashed. Do you remember our talks of how the mind could possibly control matter, that not our bodies?
- So it happened to all of them?
- I can't know that. I can't know anything. It is hard to say what happened in each situation. They all thought to be chosen by gods. They can't all have been deceived as I was - no, as I suspect I was! They should be confirmation of the contrary, and yet...
I can't tell them - said Fren, after a pause - They will believe in what they believe, even if I confessed my doubts. But I'll never confess. This would disturb some of them. This is something that cannot solve or finish this business and there is no way of knowing it for certain, for I can't return to that moment.
- So you will follow the Chosen Ones, and keep on being a Chosen One, even if you are not sure of it?
- Not being sure... This is my problem! How can I stop it, if a part of me is convinced it happened? I just wish to be whole again.
- Not torn apart - said Lucio?
- Not divided by it - said Fren.
- I guess this is expected. We see, but seldom understand.

Coisas por aí

One Piece; Air Gear

'The glens are covered in cold mist...'

'The glens are covered in cold mist, and the summits in snow. We cannot cross the mountains here, and going southwest seems to be entering the swamp further and further, and we don´t want to go in this way so perilous with little hope of finding an exit. But I think I can find some way through the mountains near the northern reaches. We could get to the North Range there, do you remember? These are the mountains in which we were before the floor opened and we fell in the cave. It looked like we crossed the whole world underground, but we were just crossing the Central Range. This swamp seems to be just on the other side of the mountains. I think I can take us home'.
'Lost on the far side of the world, eh?' said Fren 'Good thing we have Teobolt to find the way, for I was thinking, just as you said, that we were miles and miles away from our countries. We are just outside the map then.'
'Nothing more to do, we go north' said Haccu, picking up his things and his sword. The Travellers went on, towards the smaller brown peaks. They avoided the muddy marshes in the lower parts of the valley, and made their trail as best as they could in the slopes of the great Central Range. Not as high as they wished, for it was cold up there, and there was snow in the summits. Their guide had to lead them by the marshes from time to time and they did not knew what was worse: the mosquitoes of the swamp or the cold of the barren slopes.
Faring their way north, they had a great view of the west: a long and watery desolation, without any city or human activity nearby. This was the wild side of the world, on the other side of the Great Mountain Range.
'But the Flower-Kingdoms were up here north' said Karyn 'Yet I don't see them anywhere. To which direction they lie?'
'They lie west' said Teobolt 'Yet you cannot see them, not with human eyes at least. I think they lie too far away to the west and we could not reach them before our provisions are over. And you remember how the fair-folk kept to their regions: I doubt they would have outposts in the wilderness as the ones we can find by going back east, to our lands and countries. Our strength would not last, or so I think. Who knows for certain what kind of lands lie in between us? No one has ever been here. Last night I even saw a faint glow in the clouds, to the west. It was red and menacing. I suppose it could have been a volcano.'
'The land of the Fire must be that way then!' cried Foxy. He seemed to be taken by the desire to come back and ask for help among the people he knew, but then he remembered: 'No one there crosses the Rivers of Fire, that mark the boundary to their land. If they can never go out, the same is for us, we could never go in. It would be a dead end. Let us go north then, and avoid the wilderness.'
'It will be wild' said Teobolt 'But finding a way through the North Mountains, well... I would feel better in known wilderness'.
And the days passed in a slow march. The sun never rose too much, and on the slopes it was dusk very early. Gamma kept her silence and a pair of eyes over the swamp. Did it move her? Was she saying her farewells to a beautiful and inospite place? Or she had enough of it by the founding of a small town?

MOUNTSOFWOE

I saw the hangings and floggings of God;
I saw the witch burn at the stake of the Law.
I saw the men fight till blood was no more!
And I curse the barren lands, the barren lands of men!
In fire I swear, this earth will be bare!
And mankind will see all the long agony
That I had to endure for all that I hoped.
I believed and was wrong, for there's nothing to see
But the barren lands in fire, in fire is she!
Forgotten the laws and forgotten the blows
Fire consumes and up goes the woe!
Dragonflys swarm, where wolves will be born
In this place of distress, in this place that means death.
Bears and boars roam, for food that´s long gone.
In this place of distress, in this place that means death.
All men sharpen with skill their desire to kill
In this place of distress, in this place that means death.

Dens of wolves and mounts of woe
When will this solitude end?
Hunters gather 'round Jacob's ladder
To build Babel anew.
Those who climb will never return
They will hunt in Heaven.
Those who kill will never understand
The glorious sight of Heaven.
Those of Peace will never use
Use their teeth on God!
The priests are weak and so they speak
The hunters show them terror!
And when they finish a bloody feast
All that is left is my curse

Hidden the powers, and up go the towers.
And I am left to my dance of desease and decay
To curse the barren lands, the barren lands of man!

Da Sabedoria

Procurei a sabedoria nos livros.
Procurei a sabedoria no mundo.
Os livros me ensinaram de coisas que já morreram, as colinas me ensinaram de coisas que ainda estáo vivendo.
Os livros me disseram verdades, mas contadas através de mentiras. O céu me disse verdades, mas sem voz.
E quando eu parei de acreditar, eu perdi tudo. Toda a sabedoria que eu tinha foi embora para além da chuva e do sol.
Por fim, fui buscá-la no mundo real.
Mas só encontrei a loucura.
Agora, sem nada, eu me sinto no escuro, tateando sem direção... Não que haja uma.