The blue glove

Cuando tienes 5 años y la cabeza abierta con una brecha que palpita y que arde, no quieres que te grapen la herida o te la desinfecten.
No entiendes la utilidad del dolor.
Pataleas. Gritas. 

No quieres que tu padre o tu tío, o tu hermano, te digan que debes ser valiente. ¿Es menos valiente el que llora? 

Quieres una caricia, un abrazo, alguien que, con su sonrisa de volcán que todo lo inunda, sepa darle vida a un aséptico guante sanitario azul esterilizado y convertirlo en un extraño compañero al que agarrarte al sentir el miedo y el dolor cuando ella hace lo que tiene que hacer.

Así son las personas que sacan adelante el Rosalie Rendú Medical Center de Cité Soleil, Port-au-Prince. Haití.

When you are five and you have an open head wound throbbing and burning, you do not want anybody to stapled or disinfected it.

You do not understand the utility of pain.

you Kick non-stop. You scream.

You do not want your father or your uncle or your brother, to say that you must be brave. Does it crying made you less brave?

You want cuddle and hugs, someone with a smile like a volcano that can flooded everything. Someone who knows how to bring an aseptic blue sterilized medical glove into life and turn it into an odd companion to hold on to when you feel the fear and the pain that came when he/she does what it has to be done.

So this is how the people in charge of the Rosalie Rendu Medical Center in Cite Soleil, Port-au-Prince. Haití looks like.

Travel photographer

"From time to time, I get surrounded by this sense of insecurity out of nowhere. This insecurity is not that of real life, rather this is more ambiguous. It's this deep feeling of guild for living such an eventless life and suddenly I am so dissatisfied with everything that is around. A flow of disturbing emotions isolated from all contexts. This disturbing emotions gradually form into something like a black mass and their heavy weight comes onto my head and my shoulders until I can no longer stand it. Just like that, my journey beings, as if to run away from this agony.
I choose the most unfamiliar place and walk around in remote area and shoot with my camera aimlessly. This behavior is so illogical and it is the exact opposite of being productive, however, my heart can stay calm while taking pictures. I go around shooting and fantasize about the lives of other people. I think about everyday life in unknown places like a mountain village or a small town near the ocean, I think about living in different time period or different gender or generation. I long for all sorts of emotions that I have not yet experienced.
All of this leads me to sheer confusion. Lost without a destination. In my photos, I search for clues, but photos are always dark and fuzzy and they are strangely lacking the time element such as "when and where." What was once a reality in front of my own eyes is captured as if it is someone else's perspective from a long time ago. And I'll be forced to stay in the dark room facing this sense of insecurity all over again, and I'll be back on the road leading to the bottom of my heart from there on once and again".


"On the way" Masato Hattori

Invincible Summer

2013. Ulvsvåg, Artic Circle. Norway.

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
Albert Camus


"En las profundidades del invierno finalmente aprendí que en mi interior habitaba un verano invencible".
Albert Camus

Wonderful Things

“ At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker, but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold - everywhere the glint of gold.

For the moment - an eternity it must have seemed to the others standing by -

I was struck dumb with amazement, and when Lord Carnarvon, unable to stand the suspense any longer, inquired anxiously, 

'Can you see anything?'

it was all I could do to get out the words, 

'Yes, wonderful things.” 

Howard Carter, The Tomb of Tutankamen

“Transcurrió bastante tiempo hasta que pude ver algo, el aire caliente del interior provocaba que la llama del candil se agitara, pero tan pronto mis ojos se acostumbraron a la luz tenue del interior de la cámara, poco a poco fue apareciendo ante mí una extraña y maravillosa mezcla de objetos bellísimos y extraordinarios amontonados unos sobre otros.

Naturalmente hubo un cierto suspense para aquellas personas presentes allí que no podían ver nada, hasta que Lord Carnarvon me preguntó 
“¿Puede usted ver algo?”. 
Y le respondí

“Sí, cosas maravillosas”. 

Howard Carter, La tumba de Tutankamon 

Swimming lessons. About how to be a hero

 

"I wish you could swim
Like the dolphins

Like dolphins can swim
Though nothing
Will keep us together

We can beat them
For ever and ever

Oh we can be Heroes
Just for one day.

I,

I will be king
And you,
you will be queen

Though nothing
will drive them away

We can beat them,
just for one day

We could steal time,
just for one day.

We can be Heroes,
for ever and ever
What d'you say?

We can be Heroes,
just for one day".

"Heroes". David Bowie. Changes. 

Para Garra, la mejor perra buceadora del planeta. 
Tenerife noviembre 2010

cha-cha-cha-cha changes

"Si no te tomas tiempo para mirar, nunca conseguirás ver nada.

Cogí otro álbum y me obligué a ir más pausadamente.
[...]

- "Mañana y mañana y mañana" - murmuró entre dientes -, "el tiempo avanza con pasos menudos y cautelosos".
Comprendí entonces que sabía exactamente lo que estaba haciendo."
Smoke. Paul Auster

 

If you don't take the time to look, you'll never manage to see anything. I picked up another album and forced myself to go more deliberately[...]

 

"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow," he muttered under his breath, "time creeps on its petty pace." I understood then that he knew exactly what he was doing."

Smoke. Paul Auster

Et in Arcadia ego. People I: John.

Cuando era niño, John formaba parte de un grupo de boy scouts . Un día, el explorador jefe, con la intención de promover en los niños la capacidad de mantener una relación responsable con la naturaleza y disfrutar con ella, otorgó a cada explorador una pequeña planta en una maceta.. Desde ese momento eran responsables de un ser vivo al que había que cuidar y prestar atención. John tenía 12 años. Su planta medía 12 cms. 

John se tomó aquel reto muy en serio. 

Esta es su planta, casi 30 años después. 

Nunca pensé que una planta pudiera describir tan bien el alma de alguien.

Gracias John.

During his childhood, John was part of the boy scouts. One day, the scout leader, as a challenge to promote children's ability to maintain a responsible relationship with nature and enjoy it, gave each scout a small plant in a pot .. after that they have to be responsible of a living creature that needed care and attention. John was 12 at this moment. His plant was 12 cm. tall.
John took that challenge very seriously.
This is his plant, almost 30 years later.


I have never expected that a plant could describe that well somebody's soul.
Thanks John.

Sobre el pensamiento

"Pero los Papalagi (hombres blancos) piensan tanto, porque para ellos el pensar se ha convertido en un hábito, una necesidad y una carencia. Tienen que continuar pensando. Sólo después de muchas dificultades logran realmente no pensar y, en vez de esto, viven de una vez con su cuerpo entero. A menudo viven únicamente con sus cabezas, mientras el resto de sus cuerpos está profundamente dormido, aunque caminen, hablen, coman y rían mientras tanto. [...]

Si el sol está brillando, él piensa todo el tiempo cuán bellamente brilla. Pero cuando el sol brilla, es mejor no pensar absolutamente nada. Un hombre sabio extendería sus miembros a la cálida luz y no produciría ni un pensamiento mientras tanto. Él no absorbería únicamente el sol en su cabeza, sino también con sus manos y pies, su estómago, sus tobillos y todos sus miembros. Dejaría que su piel y sus miembros pensaran por él, pues esas partes piensan también, aunque no del mismo modo que piensa la cabeza."

Los Papalagi. Discursos de Tuiavii de Tiavea recogidos por Erich Scheurmann. 1920

"But Papalagi(white men) think so much, because for them to think has become an habit, a necessity and a lack. They have to continue thinking. Only after much difficulty they really get not to think and live at least with their entire body. They often live only with their heads, while the rest of their bodies are sound asleep, but walking, talking, eating and laughing in between. [...]

If the sun is shining he thinks all the time how beautifully is shining. But when the sun shines, its better not to think about absolutely nothing. A wise man will extend its members to produce warm light and not a thought in the meantime. He will not only absorbed the sun in his head, but also with his hands and feet, his stomach, his ankles and all his members. He would let his skin and his members to think for him, because these parts can also think also, but not the same way the head does. "
The Papalagi: Speeches of Tuiavii of Tiavea, a samoau chief. published in 1920. collected by Erich Scheurmann

Sobre hogares y despedidas/ about homes and fairwells.

- Fuck, this hurts so much.

- Yeah, I know.
But that is life.
If nothing else,
that's life, you know.

It's real.
Sometimes it fuckin' hurts.
To be honest,
it's sort of all we have.
How are you feelin'?

- Safe.
When I'm with you,
I feel so safe.
Like I'm home.
"Garden State" screenplay Zach Braff 2004

Sobre retos/ about challenges

El pesimista ve peligro en cada oportunidad;


El optimista ve oportunidad en cada peligro. Winston Churchill

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. Winston Churchill

Intimidad Vs. Identidad. Intimacy vs. Identity

Íntimo viene de dentro.
Antiguamente, el "íntimus" era ese lugar de la casa donde sólo accedían los muy especiales, aquellos a los que no se tenía nada que ocultar. Algo así como un sótano donde no podía entrar nadie, salvo el dueño.

Lo contrario a intimo no era público. Lo contrario a intimidad era identidad: o sea, la identidad era lo que mostrabas a los demás y la intimidad lo que tú y sólo tú, y quien tú quisieras, sabías que eras en verdad.

De este modo, cuando uno se identificaba con algo, sólo podía estar identificándose con su exterior: para reconocerse de veras, había que intimar, o sea, ir adentro. Por eso hay un carnet de identidad que podemos mostrar para que se sepa nuestro nombre, fecha y lugar de nacimiento,
pero difícilmente habrá un carnet de intimidad, porque ahí las cosas no pueden compartirse...salvo con quien se comparten cuando quieras compartirlas.
Diccionario de J

Intimate comes from the inside.
In the past, the "Intimus" was the site of the house where only the very special people are allowed to pass, those who do not have anything to hide. Something like a basement where only the owner could get in.


The opposite of "intimate" was not "public". The opposite of "intimacy" was "identity":
that is, the identity was what tou show to others and intimacy was what you and only you and who you wanted, knew you were in fact.


In the same way, when one is identified with something could only be identified with the outside: to admit truly what we are we had to intimate, or go inside.


That´s why we can have an identity card that can be shown so that people can know our name, date and place of birth, but unlikely we could have an intimacy card, because there you cannot shared those things ... except with the people you have allowed to do it, when you want it.
J's dictionary

Sobre la familia. About the family

La palabra familia viene del Latín familĭa, cuyo significado es "grupo de personas emparentadas entre sí". No existe un concepto delimitado de familia, una definición.

Para acotar su significado la ley y la semántica acudieron a distintos elementos:
La sujeción (o vinculacion de los integrantes de la familia a uno de sus miembros)

La convivencia (los miembros de la familia viven bajo el mismo techo)

El parentesco (conjunto de personas unidas por vínculo jurídico de consanguinidad o de afinidad),

la filiación (conjunto de personas que están unidas por el matrimonio o la filiación).

Familia es tambien en conjunto de personas que tienen alguna condición, opinión o tendencia común, o que presentan características comunes.

Son que permanencen cerca en el camino hasta en los días de tormenta, aquellos en los que reconoces las mejores partes de ti, porque fue de ellos de quien las aprendiste.

Son aquellos con los que compartes vida y experiencias.

La familia de Jean no es una familia al uso, pero eso es porque no es cierto la familia no se elige.

The word family comes from the Latin one familĭa , which means "group of people related to each other." There's not a defined concept of family, a definition.

To narrow its meaning, semantics and law has gone to different elements:
The subject (the link of members of the family to one of its members)

Coexistence (family members living under one roof)

Kinship (set of people united by legal relationship of consanguinity or affinity),

Filiation (group of people who are united by marriage or descent).

Family is also people who have any condition, opinion or common trends or common characteristics.

They are the ones that surrounds us in our way and remains even in the stormy days, those in which you can recognize the best parts of you, because you have learned it from them.

They are the ones who share life and experiences with you.


Jean's family is not a common family, but that's becouse it's not true that you cannot choose your own family.