#convivium

[revolutionoftenderness]

“To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”

E. E. Cummings

#selfportrait

[arkitekcher]

Convivium – New Sociality Spaces for Verziano’s Penitentiary Maria Vittoria Monaco & Riccardo Miccoli Location: Brescia, Italy | Learn More: afasiaarchzine.com

[igormag]

Renato Guttuso (1912-1987), Convivio, 1961. mixed media on paper mounted on canvas, 50 x 50,3 cm

[revolutionoftenderness]

FEAST DAY OF SAINT MARY MAGDALENE

Beautiful is the tree with its glossy leaves,

with Pentecost still playful in its branches.

I do not touch it with inquiring hand

nor break off fiery bloom to shout hosanna in my window,

nor wrench it up to root again, gay as pageant in my land.

Let it stand.

You whom I love I do not touch with even a dreamed possession

nor is this poem for you; I carry it past

your open door in a basket of secrecy.

I do not point you out as loved, nor speak about you or to you

save, out of hearing, once, that lone imperative

of all true lovers: be.

I leave you here in the innocence of your being,

joyful and unpossessing.

My claiming, out of time, will dearer be.

And innocence, that concentrate of peace,

Spreads like the haze of a soft summer noon

And encircles me.

~ Jessica Powers

[Mary Magdalene, c.1858 - c.1860 - Frederick Sandys]

#AnthonyFrederickSandys

[revolutionoftenderness]

Question: "You said that deconstruction is always accompanied by love...?"

Derrida: "This love means an affirmative desire towards the Other - to respect the Other, to pay attention to the Other, not to destroy the otherness of the Other - and this is the preliminary affirmation, even if afterwards because of this love, you ask questions. There is some negativity in deconstruction. I wouldn't deny this. You have to criticise, to ask questions, to challenge and sometimes to oppose. What I have said is that in the final instance, deconstruction is not negative although negativity is no doubt at work. Now, in order to criticise, to negate, to deny, you have first to say 'yes'. When you address the Other, even if it is to oppose the Other, you make a sort of promise - that is, to address the Other as Other, not to reduce the otherness of the Other, and to take into account the singularity of the Other. That's an irreducible affirmation, its the original ethics if you want. So from that point of view, there is an ethics of deconstruction. Not in the usual sense, but there is an affirmation. You know, I often use a quote from Rosensweig or even from Levinas which says that the "yes" is not a word like others, that even if you do not pronounce the word, there is a 'yes' implicit in every language, even if you multiply the 'no', there is a 'yes'. And this is even the case with Heidegger. You know Heidegger, for a long time, for years and years kept saying that thinking started with questioning, that questioning (fragen) is the dignity of thinking. And then one day, without contradicting this statement, he said 'yes, but there is something even more originary than questioning, than this piety of thinking,' and it is what he called zusage which means to acquiesce, to accept, to say 'yes', to affirm. So this zusage is not only prior to questioning, but it is supposed by any questioning. To ask a question, you must first tell the Other that I am speaking to you. Even to oppose or challenge the Other, you must say 'at least I speak to you', 'I say yes to our being in common together'. So this is what I meant by love, this reaffirmation of the affirmation."

[revolutionoftenderness]

“The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self—all your wishes and precautions—to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead.” 

C. S. Lewis

[revolutionoftenderness]

“Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but, no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks... Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly.” 

Albert Einstein, December 23, 1940 issue of Time magazine on page 38

[revolutionoftenderness]

“The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live.” 

Auguste Rodin