Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Coincidencias (intento de poesía)
El sol en la ventana
Entibia tu sombra
Tu vida gitana
Se aleja y te nombra
La brisa húmeda
Me trae recuerdos
La noche se cierra
Y no acepta acuerdos
Se arrastra mi nostalgia
La agonía se aletarga
A través de la distancia
Tu ausencia se alarga
Caminos desiertos
Almas en pena
Coincidencias un acierto
Nosotros y la escena?
Entibia tu sombra
Tu vida gitana
Se aleja y te nombra
La brisa húmeda
Me trae recuerdos
La noche se cierra
Y no acepta acuerdos
Se arrastra mi nostalgia
La agonía se aletarga
A través de la distancia
Tu ausencia se alarga
Caminos desiertos
Almas en pena
Coincidencias un acierto
Nosotros y la escena?
Sunday, November 05, 2006
ABOUT LIQUID RELATIONSHIPS AND OTHER HERBS
We live in a society that resists the idea of endurance. According to Zygmunt Bauman in his book “Liquid love: on the frailty of human bonds” , we live in a society free from relationships that last too long, in order not to let them become a burden on our lives. However, and misleading as it may seem we seek and hope to match someone –in our human search for companionship.
Bonds do not seem to last, for people are not ready to compromise, but what is it that has led our society, so family- prone to reach this bottle neck?. The world around us is a good place to start looking for the answer. Everywhere we look we realize that families - as we used to understand them- have almost completely disappeared. The old-fashioned stereotype of the father – mother- led group with two or three offspring is completely gone. No more two-parented families. Stop stretching your neck! You won’t find more than a bunch of them in a public place and that if you are on a lucky day. Now we come across hoards of strangely mingled groups where we can no longer identify couples, we have finally come to meet the dreaded one-parent family.
Whether in a supermarket, in a theatre or at the cinema we can see single-parents struggling along with kids. Newly divorced ones are easy to spot for they have not yet learnt the ropes and can hardly make the most of the outing as they spend all their time trying to cope with any misdeed their children might feel like carrying out. On the other hand you can always tell the most experienced ones who have already come to terms with the situation and stroll peacefully around shopping mall aisles and keep a strict eye on what is going on around them but without losing their tempers so easily. And then, last but not least, comes the third group of parents…. The ones belonging to the assembled family in which you can see a couple of relatively young parents dealing with at least five or six children and making the most of it, of course you can easily see that the kids do not look alike and worse of all that they do not get along with each other staying in separated groups striding behind their blood-related parent.
Anyway, the idea is that we are surrounded by people who are alone either because they never ventured to risk their freedom and have a family or they have tried and failed and have become single again or are actually trying to make a go at a new situation. But here again the question is how come they have reached this situation.
Old established families used to depend on a single income, usually provided by the father. This however, has absolutely changed in the last fifty years. Women have finally conquered their battle for equality and thus achieved it - and everything that has come with it! It would be unfair to say that women do not deserve a better position in a mainly chauvinist world, after all they are all well-endowed to work in positions that used to be thought the exclusive realm of men, but at the same time I believe women have lost a very important place in society and that was the one of the family keeper. Men, no matter how hard, they may try will never manage to handle a family as well as a woman does. Women are physically and emotionally prepared for this, men, however, are not.
This absence of a mother, a wife, a friend at home has seriously damaged the bond that joined families for so many a millennium ago. We can not be so childish to assume that the place for women is the kitchen, let alone her intelligence goes hand in hand with the space she has got in her parlour, but we can not deny that the female affection can never be replaced by a male one when dealing with children or family relations is the case. Nevertheless, all this has been completely lost, especially since the beginning of the eighties. Women do have the right to try out new expediencies and develop themselves as much as they feel fit, but one thing must not be forgotten by those who made their minds to become mothers. A career and motherhood can go hand in hand, but a career can always be turned down whenever a woman considers it proper but motherhood is a right that can not be sent back once it has been ordered.
In conclusion I may say, that people stay apart just because they have become accustomed to be alone, either as kids, because both parents, in the case in which there are two parents, are never together, or because they have seen them not getting on well as a result of economic pressures or their lack of will to be patient enough with each other, burdened again by job responsibilities, or because being badly bagged they do not simply know how to go about being two individuals, not afraid of losing their own identity and yet being one in the important task of carrying out a family.
To be continued………
Bonds do not seem to last, for people are not ready to compromise, but what is it that has led our society, so family- prone to reach this bottle neck?. The world around us is a good place to start looking for the answer. Everywhere we look we realize that families - as we used to understand them- have almost completely disappeared. The old-fashioned stereotype of the father – mother- led group with two or three offspring is completely gone. No more two-parented families. Stop stretching your neck! You won’t find more than a bunch of them in a public place and that if you are on a lucky day. Now we come across hoards of strangely mingled groups where we can no longer identify couples, we have finally come to meet the dreaded one-parent family.
Whether in a supermarket, in a theatre or at the cinema we can see single-parents struggling along with kids. Newly divorced ones are easy to spot for they have not yet learnt the ropes and can hardly make the most of the outing as they spend all their time trying to cope with any misdeed their children might feel like carrying out. On the other hand you can always tell the most experienced ones who have already come to terms with the situation and stroll peacefully around shopping mall aisles and keep a strict eye on what is going on around them but without losing their tempers so easily. And then, last but not least, comes the third group of parents…. The ones belonging to the assembled family in which you can see a couple of relatively young parents dealing with at least five or six children and making the most of it, of course you can easily see that the kids do not look alike and worse of all that they do not get along with each other staying in separated groups striding behind their blood-related parent.
Anyway, the idea is that we are surrounded by people who are alone either because they never ventured to risk their freedom and have a family or they have tried and failed and have become single again or are actually trying to make a go at a new situation. But here again the question is how come they have reached this situation.
Old established families used to depend on a single income, usually provided by the father. This however, has absolutely changed in the last fifty years. Women have finally conquered their battle for equality and thus achieved it - and everything that has come with it! It would be unfair to say that women do not deserve a better position in a mainly chauvinist world, after all they are all well-endowed to work in positions that used to be thought the exclusive realm of men, but at the same time I believe women have lost a very important place in society and that was the one of the family keeper. Men, no matter how hard, they may try will never manage to handle a family as well as a woman does. Women are physically and emotionally prepared for this, men, however, are not.
This absence of a mother, a wife, a friend at home has seriously damaged the bond that joined families for so many a millennium ago. We can not be so childish to assume that the place for women is the kitchen, let alone her intelligence goes hand in hand with the space she has got in her parlour, but we can not deny that the female affection can never be replaced by a male one when dealing with children or family relations is the case. Nevertheless, all this has been completely lost, especially since the beginning of the eighties. Women do have the right to try out new expediencies and develop themselves as much as they feel fit, but one thing must not be forgotten by those who made their minds to become mothers. A career and motherhood can go hand in hand, but a career can always be turned down whenever a woman considers it proper but motherhood is a right that can not be sent back once it has been ordered.
In conclusion I may say, that people stay apart just because they have become accustomed to be alone, either as kids, because both parents, in the case in which there are two parents, are never together, or because they have seen them not getting on well as a result of economic pressures or their lack of will to be patient enough with each other, burdened again by job responsibilities, or because being badly bagged they do not simply know how to go about being two individuals, not afraid of losing their own identity and yet being one in the important task of carrying out a family.
To be continued………
